"Economic freedom is based on a simple moral rule: everyone has a right to his or her life and property, and on one has the right to deprive anyone of these things." And while almost everyone agrees with that statement, we let our government get away with stealing from someone their rightfully earned money to give to someone who has no claim upon it other than "need."
And yes, it's stealing. And it violates the Biblical commandment against stealing. And when you vote to tax your neighbor (or "the rich"), you are complicit in the theft.
Frederic Bastiat, a political and economic writer calls the state, "the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." Imagine a world where we all lived at our own expense, rather than constantly trying to get someone else to support us. Do we not realize that we have the money to support ourselves, it's just that we send it to our government, who launders it, takes a chunk off the top, and then sends back a pittance?
Imagine also a world where people keep every dollar they earn, but also realize that they are responsible for their fellow humans. To see a person in need is not to direct them to the nearest government agency, but to dig deep in their own pocket and give of themselves and their own resources. It is to live out the Biblical model of providing for the widows and orphans, not the worldly model of holding a gun to your neighbor's head to make him take care of them. To steal from your fellow citizens to provide for the needy is to steal not only their money, but the life-affirming, soul-enriching opportunity to serve another. We steal our own humanity when we give every need a government solution.
Could we do it? Could we abolish the income tax and take a 40% hit to the U.S. treasury? All we would have to do is dust off a budget from 10 years ago. Could Americans meet the needs of their fellow Americans in dire straits? Well we did for the first 150 years of our country's history. We are a generous people with strong Judeo-Christian beliefs that lead us to be the most giving nation in the world.
Not only can we do it, we HAVE to do it. Entitlements are destroying not only our budget, but our soul. With more and more Americans holding out their hands and demanding what is "rightfully" theirs, our country is rapidly heading into insolvency, and Americans are rapidly losing our desire to be grown ups and take care of ourselves. We simply CANNOT keep doing what we have been doing. We have got to stop this train. Every dollar a politician receives, he will spend... twice. That is not sustainable. We need to stop sending them money.
In addition, the income tax makes Americans slaves of the government. We are forced to work for the first 6 months of the year and then hand over our hard-earned income to our government masters. Being forced to provide free labor is slavery no matter what kind of language and institutions it is couched in.
True freedom does not exist without economic freedom.
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