On today’s podcast, Gary discusses taxes, politics, the elite, and Bernie Sanders. Socialist Bernie wants to tax those evil rich people that can afford super-yachts.
The way for politicians to sell a tax increase to a majority of voters is to persuade middle-class voters that only the rich will pay the new tax. Middle-class voters keep buying this obvious lie. They are told that there is too much economic inequality today. They think the rich can afford to pay. The following question never seems to occur to American voters: “If the rich have not been paying their fair share of taxes ever since 1914, maybe the latest tax hike proposal will not be paid by them, either.” Jealousy prevails. They accept the new tax. But even if they do not pay it out of their bank accounts, they will still pay.
The state collects a portion of the money of existing property owners. The ownership of money is transferred from owners who are responsible before God, and who are inescapably the economic agents of money-bidding customers, into the hands of bureaucrats, who are agents of the state. The bureaucrats, who are under the general rule of the central government, then use the newly confiscated money as a way to satisfy the various competitors for the state’s wealth. The politicians have already authorized the tax code. The bureaucrats now collect the money and hand it out.
In a democratic system, there are many bidders for the state’s newly confiscated assets. They bid in political currency: votes. They also bid in the form of contributions to political campaigners. They may even bid in the form of under-the-table payoffs to specific legislators. Exchanges take place. Politicians decide how much they have to pay to politically adept special-interest groups.
The primary difference between the competitive free market and the state is this: there is no legalized coercion in the competitive free market. Owners have a legal right to reject bids. In contrast, when an agent of the civil government comes calling, taxpayers do not have the right to reject what is now the highest bid. This bid is enforced by a gun. Someone with a badge has a gun, and he is in a position to collect the government’s declared share of the asset owner’s wealth.
Christian Economics in One Lesson
Christian economics must begin with the issue of ultimate ownership. This sets it apart from modern economic analysis, which begins with the issue of scarcity. Second, this leads to the issue of theft, which in turn raises the issue of ethics.
Buy NowBernie Sanders is back to decrying the super-yacht industry. Once again, his answer is to tax the rich even more. Forgetting all of the economic and employment advantages the luxury industry creates, Sanders relies on envy and emotion to make his socialistic claims of inequality. These rich and powerful philosopher kings living in gated communities and lavish homes have no idea what it actually takes to start and run a business.