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"Patriotic Duty"--At the Point of a Gun

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Daily Dose of Reason - Politics & Government
Written by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.   
Friday, 19 September 2008 14:04
We're being told by Joe Biden and Barack Obama that it's our "patriotic duty" to pay taxes. Evaded in this statement are two things. One, how does an alleged patriotic duty to pay taxes justify a patriotic duty to pay huge amounts of taxes--and ever more all the time? Remember that Obama wants to take our tax rates -- at a minimum -- to those seen in socialized European countries. And how does this alleged duty justify some paying small portions of their income, while others pay extremely high rates? I thought discrimination was supposed to be against the law. I guess it isn't when it comes to redistribution of wealth. Second, a duty (at least when uttered by a career politician) implies an obligation to others. By what right does a politician arbitrarily impose on us this duty to others -- especially when the great bulk of this tax money goes to support the comfort and security of government employees and power brokers, such as Biden and Obama (not to mention McCain as well)? If the founders of the United States ever had a "duty" in mind, it was strictly a self-interested one. That is to say: The rational obligation of individuals in a free society to contribute what they could to maintain a minimalist government of courts and police, along with a standing military to prevent destruction by foreign invaders. If you value your life and your rights, you'd make such contributions with or without government coercion. That's every bit as true today as it was then. But exactly what does this self-interested obligation have to do with the imposition of a welfare state burden on the minority of people who work the hardest and make the most money? If you want to help anyone you choose to help, I won't stop you. But you have no right to force me to do the same. Slavery takes many different forms. You can hold a gun to my head and make me pay taxes--higher and higher taxes at that. But so long as we still have freedom of speech in this country, you can't make me call it anything other than what it is.
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