Who Were the Sea Peoples?

Kevin Drum makes a common error : "Does it matter that the working class barely pays for most of these programs in the first place, since their federal income taxes tend to be pretty low?" The government can control from whom it collects taxes. It cannot control who pays them. That is determined on the market. As Caplan puts it , "Tax incidence depends on supply and demand elasticity, not legislative intent." To take a simple example: Imagine you are a billionaire with a large domestic staff. You want to trust them, so you pay them a wage above the prevailing one. You're planning on giving them all large Christmas bonuses, when you read that a new tax law aimed at high CEO pay is going to cost you $50,000 this year. That happens to be the exact amount you were going to give out in Christmas bonuses, and so you decide simply to skip the bonuses this year. The government purportedly aimed to tax high-wage CEOs, but in this particular instance, the entiret...

It was refusal to contribute to public expenses that for him was clearly a crime: "But as regards attendance at choruses or processions or other shows, and as regards public services, whether the celebration of sacrifice in peace, or the payment of contributions in war-in all these cases, first comes the necessity of providing remedy for the loss; and by those who will not obey, there shall be security given to the officers whom the city and the law empower to exact the sum due; and if they forfeit their security, let the goods which they have pledged be, and the money given to the city; but if they ought to pay a larger sum, the several magistrates shall impose upon the disobedient a suitable penalty, and bring them before the court, until they are willing to do what they are ordered." -- The Laws , Book XII By the way, the point of this post is not to prove or even argue that any or all governments can justifiably collect taxes: that is a separate argument. No, what I...

Kevin Vallier demonstrates the contraception mandate to be illiberal . And along the way, he shows why taxation is not theft!