Taxation
Frank Chodorov
[Reprinted from: The Freeman, 1946]
When you unmask it, ... you see that taxation is highwaymanry
[highway robbery] made respectable by custom, thievery made moral by
law; there isn't a decent thing to be said for it, as to origin,
principle or its effects on the social order. Man's adjustment
to this iniquity has permitted its force to gain momentum like an
unopposed crime wave, and the resulting social devastation is what the
socialists have long predicted and prayed for ...
In principle this income tax, as the founders of the Constitution
realized, is more vicious than any other, for it is a direct attack on
the sanctity of private property. ... If you follow through on the
principle involved, you come to the conclusion that the individual's
right to property is a temporary and revocable stewardship. The
Jeffersonian ideal of inalienable rights is liquidated, and
substituted for it is the Marxist concept of state supremacy.
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