Passover, Tea Parties, Slavery, and Redistribution? All of these are connected.
Only 53% of Americans believe capitalism is better than socialism. How does socialism differ from capitalism? Redistribution. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” “Social justice.” “Economic justice.” “Fairness.”
Paying for somebody else’s housing – redistribution. Paying for somebody else’s healthcare – redistribution. Paying for somebody else’s education – redistribution. Paying different amounts of income tax per person – redistribution.
Why do we celebrate Passover? Because a long time ago, one April, Jews got up and left the country where they were slaves.
What is slavery? Using force to get other people’s property. What is redistribution? Using force to get other people’s property.
Imagine two slaves. One complains about slavery and another does not. For whatever reasons – he may be afraid, or he may even support the idea of slavery. Does it make him less of a slave? If a slave does not ask for freedom and can afford to pay part of the product of his labor, is he not a slave? How can we then be against “… tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and didn’t ask for them?”
I am not talking about small peanuts either. Those “wealthy” Americans are working an extra 10 to 20 years of their lives not getting a penny, just to pay income tax.
The greatest irony is that the vast majority of American Jews and African-Americans, people whose ancestors suffered extremely from slavery, people who should know better, are now in favor of slavery. In favor of redistribution.
“Sacrifice.” “Give back to society.” “Ask what you should do for your country.” “Responsibility.” “Fairness.” All that is smoke to cover and justify slavery.
It’s not that we have bad politicians. The problem is that we are bad. The politicians more or less represent what we want. “Get the wealthy.” We have no shame for going after the property of others.
When you sit around your Passover Seder tonight, drink a glass of wine against slavery, against redistribution, for freedom!
Image courtesy of ibiblio.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Zak Maymin // Apr 14, 2009 at 2:16 pm
5 COMMENTS FROM OPEDNEWS
numbers, please
unless the author can provide hard numbers to back up this assertion : “Those “wealthy” Americans are working an extra 10 to 20 years of their lives not getting a penny, just to pay income tax, ” i’ll assume he’s just making stuff up….
look, for 08, the top marginal rate is 35%, and that kicks in when taxable income goes above 357K…in other words, even at the highest rate, the income earner is keeping amost two dollars for every dollar he pays in tax..
this can hardly be construed as “not getting a penny.”
by rusty popstar
on Saturday, Apr 11, 2009 at 11:03:29 AM
Reply: Yeah, but…
OK, the taxes on the wealthy were a poor argument.
But the correlation of slavery and redistribution was spot on.
The author should have gone into the difference between voluntary redistribution (charity) and involuntary redistribution (taxation) and discussed the morality of each a little better.
Some of us have no problem with theft by a poor person of a wealthy person, but such an act is still theft, and immoral since it deprives the rightful property owner of their right to decide what to do with their own property, and instead forces their will on another.
Some people have no problem giving to the poor, as long as its taken from someone else, initially. Tax everyone else to pay the unproductive? Why not just let criminals steal what they need? At least it cuts out the bureaucrat in the middle, and his share.
So, Rusty, how much of Mr. Wealthy’s paycheck are you entitled to either spend yourself, or give away?
by UncleSim on Saturday, Apr 11, 2009 at 12:25:10 PM
For a moment you made me think twice about the wealthy. The answer is that a really wealthy can hire clever accountants to beat the tax man. The wealthy bribed the legislators to rob the working man of his productivity increases to put them into corporate pockets. It is called criminal capitalism to steal from the poor to give to the rich.
As a peasant I prefer socialism. Israel taxed me at a 50% when I worked, but was very generous with me after I was disabled and now, as I am a pensioner.
I hope you become a regular at OEN. We need someone with a good sense of humor around here.
Pesach Sameach
by Jason Paz
The true definition of slavery is the ownership of an individual, Slaves can be bought and sold and have no rights. Slaves can be used to do whatever their owners desire and punished or killed if their owner deems it necessary.
As for the author of the above article claiming slavery is the redistribution of wealth I believe he is merely defending the interests of the wealthy in a clever fashion. What he or she needs to understand is that some of the wealthy made their fortunes by redistributing the wealth of the poor and middle class and even the United states treasury into their personal accounts. It is very presumptuous to assume that all wealthy people actually earned all of their income by just or fair methods and anyone who seeks to tax them is a socialist or is intent on making them a slave. In many cases the wealthy profit tremendously off of labor that is as close to slavery as the law will allow.
Close your eyes and envision a person on welfare, what do you see? an overweight lazy person, too lazy to work living off the hard work of others. A person who truly believes he or she is entitled to a free ride courtesy of Uncle Sam, using the safety net like a trampoline. What I see is a corporate CEO with a multi million dollar annual salary and more hot air than brains. a CEO with no ethics receiving government subsidies, no bid contracts, bailouts from the treasury, Slave labor in the form of illegal immigrants, tax abatement’s, government grants, I could go on and on.
have a happy Easter.
by Simple Truth
Reply: Presumption
It is very presumptuous to assume that all wealthy people got their wealth immorally, and are deserving of having it redistributed.
These days, when envisioning someone on welfare, I must consider my own disability. I served in the military, and worked (on average) two jobs at any given time, for the last 20 years or so. Today, I am unable to walk well enough to do most jobs, especially those I am well trained for, and must rely on assistance. I would still prefer to work at whatever I am able, but the system precludes all that through minimum wage and other employer-restricting laws, which force him/her to treat and pay me equally to an employee who is more productive. Who would you hire?
Anyway, the definition of slavery wasn’t the issue, so much as the correlation to it, I think. What’s the diff between slavery, and forced labor to pay one’s share of taxes on income? Is income an evil to be reduced through taxation? Is inactivity a virtue to be rewarded with subsidy? Government intervention is the source of both evils. And government is the only entity legally capable of forcing free citizens to labor in pursuit of its interests, instead of their own.
by UncleSim on Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009 at 1:21:37 PM
2 Obama’s IRS agent is trying to entrap me. If you are a blogger or a writer, be aware of the scheme! | Publicani // Aug 11, 2009 at 1:26 pm
[...] I’ve written in the past some posts arguing against redistribution and the income tax, such as here and [...]
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