The Death Tax, It’s Not Their Money Anyway
The House passed an extension of the estate tax (death tax) on Thursday, Dec. 3rd. The tax was supposed to temporarily expire next year, but those in power couldn’t stand to let money stay in the hands of citizens. The extension places a 45% tax on estates worth over 3.5 million dollars. This extension could quite possibly kill jobs in a time when we need every job we can get. I know 3.5 million sounds like a lot of money, but if someone owns a successful job producing small business, the 3.5 million threshold can be met fairly easily. If a small business owner passes away, the business and/or equipment would most likely have to be sold off just to pay the tax. This would cause jobs at the business to be lost The death tax is an overall bad idea, but the attitude of many liberals about taxes in general is what is really unsettling.
One of the many differences between a liberal and a conservative is their respective views on personal property. The conservative views personal property as a right that cannot be taken away. John Locke, who was a major influence on our founding fathers, claimed that we all have a right to Life, Liberty, and Property. We all have the right to own and protect our property and no one has the right to take it away from us. We allow, by way of our Constitution, a portion of our property to be taken in the form of taxes to pay for the necessary functions of government . The key phrase here is, “We allow, by way of our Constitution”. The government does not own our property nor does it have a right to our property. It only has the ability to tax us because we have given it that ability in the Constitution.
Liberals views personal property in a different light. They believe the government has the right to all property. This is the opposite view of the conservative. The conservative believes property is owned by the individual and the individual allows the government to have a portion of it through taxation. On the other hand, the liberal believes that all property is owned by the government and the government allows individuals to have a percentage of it. Most liberals will not readily admit this. Instead, they will beat around the bush or twist the wording to make it sound different than what it truly is. For instance, a liberal politician will not publicly say that the government owns or has a right to all property, but they may say something similar such as, “we need to spread the wealth around”. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo, provided more evidence of the liberal view of property when had this to say about the Death Tax,
This bill gives our nation’s wealthiest families the ability to know exactly what their obligation to the nation that fostered their wealth will be, and it is fair and it is just.
By saying this, he is claiming that anyone with an estate larger than 3.5 million has an obligation to give almost half of it to the government when they die. Why? Because this nation (read government) fostered their wealth so it really belongs to the government anyway! Does anyone else see how this is contrary to the values our country was founded on such as the right to life, liberty, and property? These are sad times for our country when our own Congressmen hold beliefs contrary to our founding values and are able to implement those beliefs into law.
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Comments (6)
Matt
December 4th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
You nailed it when you spoke of government thinking they own all property. In fact, they think they own all wealth. I honestly think that they really don’t want us to control any of it.
patriotic dissenter
December 4th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I, for one, am very angry.
Charles
December 5th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I think our friend Liberty has succeeded in arguing that God is a fiscal liberal.
If you have ever sat through a stewardship Sunday sermon at a Southern Baptist Convention church, as I have on many occasions, the pastor argues that none of us human beings own anything in this world. “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” (1 Corinthians 10:26). The line of thought here is that you may think that you own your own home, but it is really just an illusion. God owns your home and is just letting you use it temporarily while you are here on Earth.
Most of you would probably classify me as a liberal, but I have nothing against someone owning property. A 45 percent tax on an inheritance does sound outrageous. If I were going to tax it at all, I would probably tax it as straight income for the inheritors.
However, I would say this. Andrew Carnegie (by no means known as a flaming liberal) believed that it was a sin to pass great amounts of wealth on to one’s children. His famous quote is: “I would as soon leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar.” And so it was. Upon his death, most of his several hundred million dollars went to places other than his children. In fact, he only left his children a modest amount of money to live on for the rest of their lives.
There are also a couple of related issues to consider here. They are what anthropologists would define as “cultural stress” and what conservatices refer to as their doctrine of “personal responsibility.” In looking at prehistory and history, anthropologists have found that human societies are at their most creative when under extreme stress because the stress necessitates creativity and inventiveness in order to survive. I think Andrew Carnegie, who was from a poverty stricken Scottish family under extreme stress, would agree with the anthropologists. He would also agree that people have a “personal responsibility” to make their own way in life rather than depend on “sugar daddy” wealth passed on to them by an ancestor. I think old Andrew might put it like this:
“The government should levy heavy taxes on an inheritence. People who get large amounts of money for free will not value it because they have no sense of the initiative, sweat, and drive it took to earn it. It will just make them fat, soft, and lazy like being on welfare. Stress spurs creativity and the wealth that comes from it. Each new generation must take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for making its own wealth through its on unique inventions and ideas, just as I did. This is how we advance ourselves and the world.”
Go here and learn something about Mr. Carnegie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaWyHKk5E-w
Liberty
December 6th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Charles,
I agree that everything is the Lord’s, and I believe that as a Christian I have the responsibility to be a good steward with what the Lord has entrusted me with on this Earth. Because I believe God requires good stewardship from us is exactly why the government should not own all property or have a right to it.
How have you turned this into God being a liberal? If God owns everything and requires us to be good stewards of what he has given us, how then can the government also own everything? If everything is owned by the government, how can we be good stewards of it? Are you equating God with government? Are you saying everything is God’s so everything is also the government’s?
I have no problem with Carnegie giving away most of his money before his death and I agree that people who recieve large amounts of monmey without earning it may not value it. As a conservative I believe his wealth was his property and he had a right to do whatever he wanted with it. However, I highly doubt he would have prefered the government to confiscate most of it and take away his choice of who to give his money. Did he give most of his money to the government before he died? Did he write a huge check to the U.S. treasury? If not then I don’t believe he would support a death tax.
Charles
December 6th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Okay. You win. Conservatives are always right on all issues, and liberals are always all wrong on all issues. Happy? That is what you wanted to hear. Right?
Liberty
December 6th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Yes, you have finally seen the light!
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