When “giving back” is code for “taking by force”

Posted by Marc Hodak on April 27, 2007 under Collectivist instinct | Comments are off for this article

On the fine Coyote Blog, a commenter recently used the term “giving back” to describe taxes paid in support of social programs. I don’t know how the term “giving back” ever got equated to paying taxes, but this use of the term really needs to be taken out to the back forty and shot.

I liken it to the idea that people used to have (and many still have) about praising Jesus: “If it’s the right thing to do, why not have a law?” Because, as Jefferson pointed out, threatening sanctions against unbelievers taints everyone’s religion. If your neighbor sings in church, is it an expression of piety or fear? If there’s a law, one can’t know. Part of the genius of the Founding Fathers was their realization that laws enforcing religion potentially subject all religious expression to question. They saw religious freedom as perfecting their ability to express their beliefs.

A similar argument attaches to “giving back” by way of taxation. Sure, most people don’t want to see the poor, especially the elderly poor, suffering. But as it stands now, no one can say that we take care of our poor because of collective compassion when the threat of violence stands right behind that “compassion.” One can argue whether or not our poor would be worse off without transfer payments, but one cannot call government transfer payments “giving back” since there is no choice about the “giving,” even if much of it may have otherwise been freely given absent coercion.