Mobs can be orderly, and the reason that we have a representative republic instead of a democracy (as you pointed out) is because the founders deeply feared democracy as simply orderly mob rule. I might point out that income taxes were declared unconstitutional in 1894. The constitution was amended to add this, because it did not fit the founders plan. If you don’t think the income tax is confiscation at the point of a gun, try not paying it. Men from the government will eventually kick in your door, point at gun to your head and throw you in a cage. What I specifically get motivated about on this subject is people on the left singling out the 1% for hatred, blaming them for all their problems and declaring they pay no taxes. They already pay 50% of all income tax. This especially smacks of brown shirt fascist tactics to jin up hatred as a fuel for power. How is that not mob action? I agree about asset forfeiture without due process. It is wrong and unconstitutional.
I do willingly pay taxes, but still it is taking not giving. It maybe necessary theft at some level, but taking is theft. Spending someone else’s money without their consent is theft. Spending $20 trillion of an unborn generation’s wealth is theft. My primary challenge is to those who believe their calls for higher taxes on the rich are reflections of charity and virtue. Their calls reveal that their own hearts and motivations are theft not charity. Charity is a response from the heart not from fear, intimidation, coercion and force. If the numbers were small and the spending was rational these points would be moot, because few would object. It’s the greed and graft of government, it’s cronies and those who feel entitled to take from others that underlies these objections to taxes. Taxes are the fuel of this greed.
Your analysis of the 1% shows you have no idea how things work. When you reach that level of income the fact is deductions disappear. I don’t care what MSNBC and Bernie’s fantasy narratives are about tax dodges but they are crap. The 1% is who gets audited. They are watched like a hawk by the IRS. The payers often are actually small businesses like S-corps who pay taxes on net income which means income after expenses of creating the income are deducted. So if you sell a house as a builder for $200,000 but there’s $190,000 in labor and materials is your idea of fairness that he pays tax on $200,000 of net revenue or on the $10,000 of profit? It always is on the profit. Deducting cost of revenue is not hiding assets, etc. I’ve prepared a tax return for someone in the 1%; it’s part of what I do in business. Deductions vanish that lower income people can claim. AMT tax appears, new taxes that don’t apply to others in Obamacare magically appear. Don’t believe? Get a copy of Turbotax and just input dummy numbers and see what happens.
You comment about corporate taxes is incorrect. All corps pay a 35% tax. That’s 3.5 out of 10 dollars gone. Then when the corporation distributes the profit of the corp to shareholders it taxes that income a 2nd time. That money is owned by the shareholders and has already been taxed. But just by moving it from one account to another the government grabs more. This double taxation on corporate income raises the rate well over 50% in many cases. It’s higher than almost anywhere in the world and is making US corporations uncompetitive in the world economy. I know the meme’s out their about corps not paying taxes, but dig into any case cited and it’s bullshit. Give me a case, and I will show you.
Sales taxes, fees for service and tolls are optional taxes that can be avoided. They are not confiscatory in a manner like income taxes. Paying the cost of a service is much more likely to make the use of that service fit need rather than want. When costs are socialized demand goes up and supply goes down causing dislocations. When people have to pay for the cost of service they are more likely to make choices that reduce demand or raise supply. Saying such fees are harder on the poor is to suggest that I should stay poor and let daddy pay my bills instead of working harder like I have.
As far as the claim the US is not based on Christian values or is more moral than the Bible tht just seems to be a lack of understanding of history or is the result of being the child of progressive narratives of US history. The US constitution was born in the aftermath of the 1st Great Awakening that saw explosive movements in England and the colonies to deep acceptance of Christian faith. Many of the founders grew up at the feet of some of the great preachers of that time. Ben Franklin was, for instance, close friends with George Whitfield the best known of all 18th century evangelists. Whitfield was a rock star of his age. Even those who were not deep believers were knowledgeable and familiar with the concept of natural law. Perhaps the most foundational new idea of the founders was that rights came from God not man, and that government did not grant rights it protects them. That is why is says in the first amendment, “Congress shall make no law.” It presupposes the right of religion and free speech as naturally flowing from the god of nature.
Covenants are voluntary acts. The writers of the declaration were dedicating to each other their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. There is no more Biblical Christian act than to make willingly such a covenant. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (most foundational words of Jesus). This all changes when you point a gun at someone and require them to do it. The first act is love the last one is theft. What a moral society does is create the environment where people willingly make such choices. The left does not accept this and believes it must force such choices. This simply leads to envy, hate and division.
1% are hoarders and not charitable? Where do you get this from? Investing is not hoarding. And the 1% are the most charitable among us. How many hospitals, museums, symphonies, food banks, etc would not exist if it were not for their charity and the charity of all else? If capitalism is not moral then what is? Socialism? So capitalism where two parties come to a mutually agreeable exchange that enriches them both is immoral but socialism where one party forcibly takes from the other is moral? In what universe? In a free market the key word is free. No one is forced in an exchange. Each party (buyer/seller) do so voluntarily. I’ve heard it even described as mutually shared altruism.
1%’ers pay 50% of all income taxes paid. The bottom 50% pay zero. So how the hell can you claim or imply that the 1% don’t pay their share? It’s the bottom 50 who don’t pay their share. They get most of the benefits and none of the cost. Most people in poverty in the US have homes with A/C, flat panel TV’s, cell phones, own cars, etc. Your narrative about the poor is something flown in from the 1930’s to inspire a new generation to once again be the power base for tyrants and thugs whose only gift is greed, graft and corruption that result from active community organizing into positions of power over willing dupes who will gladly make them rich for making all of us poorer.