Is taxation moral?

1. 82

   Sam Wickstromposted 7 years ago

   Is taxation moral?
   
   Extortion is the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. Taxation is the practice of obtaining money through force or threats. It is immoral to take someones money through force or threats. When the government does it, few people so much as bat an eye. Yet we're being extorted into paying for illegal wars, subsidies for massive corporations, bailouts for banks, collective enslavement through national debt, and so on. What are your thoughts on this? Please don't respond saying, what about roads, healthcare, police, firemen, etc.This is a moral question.
   
   

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2. 0

   RTalloniposted 7 years ago

   It seems that what you are speaking of is the difference between living in the amazing republic that the clever Benjamin Franklin warned the American people they might not be able to hold on to and the democracy that too many who say they want it do not understand.
   
   Contrary to popular opinion, a republic limits government intrusion while a democracy gives government more freedom than the people it is supposed to serve. Understanding the difference between the two is most effectively obtained by studying what the founders themselves wrote about it.
   
   For instance, Madison wrote, "As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government (that of a Republic) presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another."
   
   Today, people rebel at such thoughts, but that does not change the truth of them. Having no manifest ability to learn from history, nor the desire to be honest about themselves individually or as a whole, nor the wish to believe that no one can have everything, we see a large group of people crying for a democracy that they do not comprehend as they reject the republic that has allowed them the freedoms they enjoy.
   
   The issue isn't whether we need a government, the issue is whether we will rebuild our authentic republic (one that is unlike any other so-called republic) or pursue a democratic form of government that always leads to stronger divisions among people, including the ruling class as opposed to the people they decree unable to make proper decisions for themselves. 
   
   Once that concept is grasped we run into people with issues on the word proper, as if the concept of certain things being right or wrong should be dismissed and everyone should be allowed to do as they please. If we allow the realization of what that would mean to guide us back to what the founders worked through and shared with the future (us) through their writings, we have some hope of rebuilding our republic. A moral is needed.

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3. 82

   Sam Wickstromposted 7 years ago

   You have a very good point. Government spending has left the control of the people and become a system of despotism. Maybe if people woke up to this reality we would have the urgency to fix the system. I feel like now people are so caught up in the pettiest of issues and celebrity gossip that they don't even understand whats going on. Thanks for the answer, very well written

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