A former state representative responded to my recent post about the Marxist nature (those who have more, pay more, simply because they can) of many of our taxes. He justified the existence of rate-based taxes by quoting a bank robber:
‘That’s where the money is.’ And he surmised that we won’t be returning to uniform taxes (everyone pays the same amount for the same thing) anytime soon.
It wasn’t clear from his reply whether he thinks that Marxist taxes are a good idea or a bad idea that we’re just stuck with.
But ‘where the money is’ is just another way of saying ‘from each according to his ability.’ Similarly, having a minimum below which no taxes are collected is just another way of saying ‘to each according to his needs.’
In the end, if you’re being taxed at a rate — escalating or flat — instead of a fixed amount, it’s an admission that your money and property don’t really belong to you, but rather belong to everyone.
That is, once it’s been established that the government can take x percent of your income or property, there’s no principle that keeps it from being able to take any other percentage, up to and including 100 percent — if ‘that’s where the money is’.
The legislature can pick any figure it wants, as a way of letting you keep, as a commission, the money and property that you’ve acquired on behalf of everyone (in much the same way that an employer might let you keep some percentage of sales that you generate). Any limits on that figure aren’t theoretical, but practical, in that at some point, people will start remitting lead, at very high speeds, in lieu of silver and gold.
Certainly, a return to uniform taxes won’t happen as long as people try to dismiss the Marxist nature of our current taxes, instead of owning up to it. As Confucius noted, the first step towards wisdom is to call things by their right names. Until we start being open about the Marxist nature of our tax systems, we won’t ever take that first step.
Remember how a generation ago, the idea that most people should be able to carry guns in most places seemed ridiculous? Now, after a long conversation about the proper nature of the relationship between citizens and their government, nearly all states have ‘shall issue’ permits, and at least 20 states have ‘constitutional carry’ laws. That’s the kind of conversation we need to start having right now, but about taxes instead of guns.
