Note also that I did not have to give my personal consent for some of these others to have a claim on it. The fact that this income is mine does not settle anything about who else might have legitimate claims to some portion of it, and on what grounds. If I negligently injure someone, I am liable to pay them damages from my income. In some states, such as California, I have a legal obligation to support my parents out of my income, if they cannot support themselves. But my children have a rightful claim to support from my income. Two points should put these fallacies to rest.įirst, a technical point: the fact that some property is mine does not entail that other people do not have rightful claims to some portion of it. This complaint is often conjoined with the accusation that liberals, in order to justify taxation, must believe that the government owns all property to begin with and by rights could confiscate it all. Here's one common one I hear: that government, in taxing my property, is taking away what is really mine.

It pays for defenders of private property to listen to Locke, so as to avoid silly complaints about taxation. That's John Locke, the great defender of private property, writing ( Second Treatise of Government, ch. 'Governments cannot be supported without great charge, and it is fitĮvery one who enjoys his share of the protection, should pay out of hisĮstate his proportion for the maintenance of it.' Main JanuHow not to complain about taxes (1)Īnderson on Political Economy, Anderson on Taxes, Elizabeth Anderson: January 6, 2005

Oligopoly klepto plutocracy