This has been so for longer than any of us can remember because it has been so for longer than any of us have been alive.
“We the People” steal from our neighbor all the time, and are vigorously encouraged to go right on doing so by both of the political parties atop our contrived, Statism-promoting political system.
We steal – or, to be more precise, we hire the State to steal on our behalf – to pay for our Social Security.
We steal to pay for our public schools.
We steal to fund our massive, globe-spanning, perpetual-war-making military.
And we have no appetite to repent of any of it.
State entitlement to know how Americans earn their money and to know how much they earn is a given here in “the land of the free” and the home of the NSA.
Think about that for a sec.
Let it soak in.
Then think about that “freedom” idea again, if you can stomach the juxtaposition.
Here in America, we want the State to know everything about what our neighbor earns and we want the State to steal from our neighbor to fund the plethora of State-run programs upon which we’ve become dependent.
Put another way, we want our Social Security checks, our public schools, our welfare state, our warfare state, our unemployment benefits, and our disability benefits, and we are more than willing to have the State do the dirty work of stealing to fund these things on our behalf.
[insert “U! S! A!” chant here]
It is this context that should help us to keep things properly focused when we hear the latest in a never-ending run of All-American Tax-as-Theft Socialist insanity in action, which comes to us this time by way of Seattle where, according to a report published earlier this week, the Seattle City Council has approved a measure to levy an income tax on “the rich”.
Here are some of the tragi-comedic details, as covered in The Seattle Times:
The Seattle City Council unanimously approved an income tax on wealthy residents Monday, a move widely expected to draw a quick legal challenge.
The measure applies a 2.25 percent tax on total income above $250,000 for individuals and above $500,000 for married couples filing their taxes together.
“Seattle should serve everyone, not just rich folks,” software developer Carissa Knipe told the council before the 9-0 vote, saying she makes more than $170,000 per year.
“I would love to be taxed,” the 24-year-old from Ballard testified, drawing applause from a room packed with supporters of the tax.
The city estimates the tax would raise about $140 million a year and cost $10 million to $13 million to set up, plus $5 million to $6 million per year to manage and enforce.
The council’s finance committee cleared the tax last week and increased the rate from 2 percent to 2.25 percent.
Opponents have argued the tax would violate state law and the state constitution, while proponents have said it would make Seattle’s tax structure more fair and that they want to test the legality of taxing income.
Neither Washington nor any city in the state now collects an income tax. That’s partly why the state’s tax system has been called the most regressive in the country, meaning people with less money pay a much greater percentage of what they have.
In a statement, Mayor Ed Murray said Seattle is “challenging this state’s antiquated and unsustainable tax structure by passing a progressive income tax,” calling it a “new formula for fairness.”
Before we allow ourselves to write this latest Seattle swing to the even-more-left as just par for the course for “those crazy libs”, remember: So-called “conservatives” and Pagan Right Wing Statists dominating the Republican Party are all about the preservation of all of the fundamentals that make this bout of Seattle lunacy possible.
Using the coercive power and force of the State to confiscate the wealth of people (aka “theft”) in order to prop up massive, blatantly unbiblical, overtly Socialistic/Marxist constructs like public schools, Social Security, and the welfare/warfare State is as fundamental to Republican Party politics as it is to Democrat Party politics.
In this we have yet another reminder that the Pagan Political Left and Pagan Political Right are two wings of the same dragon.
So is Seattle crazy?
Has it’s City Council gone mad?
Is it detached from reality in very fundamental ways that will inevitably destroy the city and culture it is empowered to protect?
You betcha.
But Seattle is only following the lead and building upon a foundation laid by the Pagan Political Right and its adoration of the theft-through-taxation model of funding massive State-empowering (and State-dependence promoting) programs like public schools and Social Security.
So don’t laugh too hard at The Emerald City.
Don’t giggle too much about the stupidity of its City Council.
Most American “conservative” leaders are skipping down the very same yellow brick road that has led the liberal left coast to the brink of ruin.
Until and unless we repent of our All-American Statism and abandon the State-run, theft-funded programs we’ve come to adore, we are destined to follow Seattle right down the drain under the heel of God’s judgment.