“You didn’t earn it.” That’s the glib argument our commie politicians often use to shame any taxpayer who actually believes his lawfully earned paycheck belongs primarily to him and not the government.
And that glib argument, once you factor in all the luck and assistance that accompany every paycheck, is admittedly correct. Lebron James, for example, wouldn’t be a billionaire today if he hadn’t won the height and athleticism lottery at conception, and if others hadn’t invented basketball, established the NBA, pioneered television, constructed 20,000-seat basketball palaces, and discovered that celebrity endorsements were a great way to boost sales.
But that same glib argument also applies to those who write our tax laws. The commie politicians in DC didn’t earn any of the hundreds of millions of dollars Mr. James has been paid to play basketball either, and the commie politicians in DC didn’t earn any of the power they’ve been exercising to feast on Mr. James’s salary for the past 20-plus years. If it weren’t for the Constitution and the Sixteenth Amendment (both ratified long before they were born), and a small army of campaign staffers, volunteers, consultants, fixers, and fundraisers, those commie politicians wouldn’t be in a position to set federal income tax rates and play Santa Claus. Why should they, then, and their non-commie brethren, have anything but a small and constitutionally limited co-ownership stake in any citizen’s paycheck?
I’m reminded of an interview between Phil Donohue and Milton Friedman where Phil is saying society should not be ruled by greed. And Milton asks him if he thinks that politicians and bureaucrats have no greed. He asks where will you find those angels without greed to rule over us?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A