Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, for modernity, and for prosperity. The wealthy pay more because they have benefitted more.
Of all the powers conferred upon government, that of taxation is most liable to abuse.
The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor.
Using taxes to punish the rich, in reality, punishes everyone because we are all interconnected. High taxes and excessive regulation and massive debt are not working.
It's a lethal thing to suddenly raise taxes.
If I tax them, in fact, I'm not taxing the capitalists, I am taxing the people who have saved, trusted. It was very controversial, those sorts of things. But finally, it worked out.
The problem is government spends too much. So raising taxes is what politicians do, instead of reducing spending.
We can fight over what the taxation levels should be, but the tax system should be very, very simple and not distortionary.
One of the things I have been preaching around the world is collecting taxes in an equitable manner, especially from the elites.
The power to tax is the power to destroy.