Excellent commentary in National Review today, by Doug Bandow: Taxes for God?
This ties in to a lot of what I've previously blogged on taxes and personal responsibility: that God's commandments for me to be compassionate to others are more appropriately answered by me opening my own wallet rather than yours. Of course the commandments are for each and every one of us, but the appropriate response is the same - give from your own, not your neighbors'.
A couple of other comments related to this issue: Liberals say that higher taxes are more compassionate. How can this be? To believe this is to believe that somehow it benefits the poor and disadvantaged to take money from the rich and give it to government bureaucracies. This is untrue on its face. I don't make the sixteen year old kid working at McDonalds any richer by paying higher taxes. I may make him richer by eating at McDonalds more often, but I certainly won't do that if all my money is already spent on taxes. The same thing is true where I work. I don't get any richer just because the CEO of my company, or the company itself for that matter, pays higher taxes. No, I get richer if they give me a raise, which is actually more likely if they pay less in taxes rather than more. So the argument that higher taxes are more compassionate is false on its face.
Posted by joelfuhrmann at September 9, 2003 12:55 PM