Bracket Creep

I hear they are organizing a protest against this immoral action — they are calling it the “Greenwich spring” …

Taxing “the rich” is an easy sell. The task of rebuilding government finances, we are told, requires wealthier people to “pay a fair share” of the burden. But are high taxes really fair? Is this a moral campaign—or a deeply immoral one?

It is morally concerning that taxes are taken from us by force. Force is something we want less of, not more. Nearly everyone would happily support basic services like defense, infrastructure, even welfare. But, as the 19th-century French politician and author Frédéric Bastiat pointed out, as taxes rise, people come to see themselves not as willing social contributors but as victims of exploitation. Then it takes even greater force to make them pay.

via Eamonn Butler: The Moral Case Against Soaking the Rich – WSJ.com.