There was an article that stated that if some tax policy was changed, a family making $20,000 a year would see their taxes go up by 60%. But, in reality, a family like that is paying no income tax. They are likely getting the earned income credit--a "refund" of money paid by someone else. 60% of nothing is still nothing. The article was purposely misleading to promote an agenda.
The vocabulary of the political left is fascinating. I believe Thomas Sowell pointed out that the left considers it to be "materialistic" and "greedy" to want to keep what you have earned. But it is "idealistic" to want to take away what someone else has earned and spend it for your own political benefit or to feel good about yourself.
If someone benefits from a hamburger, clothes, an education, a house, who should be forced to pay for it? I agree with Mr. Sowell that the only morally correct answer is that the person who receives the benefit should pay for it. Unless we are thieves who only care only about our immediate enjoyment, and who pays is irrelevant. One of our country's problems is too many Americans want to benefit from things for which they expect other Americans to be taxed.
The French economist Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850) said, "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." He is as correct today as he was 150 years ago.
