Peter Schiff: Majority Doesn't "Have A Right To Steal My Money Just Because They Voted For It"

Real Clear Politics ^ | December 10, 2012 | Peter Schiff

[george76]

First of all, I'm in the top two percent. Right now, I'm paying 45% of my total income in income taxes, both to the state of Connecticut and to the federal government, and if you take the 3% Medicare tax. After the tax hikes go into effect next year, more than half -- more than half of my total income is going to go to the government.

You tell me, what's fair about that when medieval serfs pay 25%, I'm paying half? I don't care what the majority voted to do, they don't have a right to steal my money just because they vote for it.

[small business owner]

Very well said I am also in the top 2% and they have no right to steal my money through both income tax and estate tax.

[GeronL]

I agree. A good reason we need a single rate. They would not be so eager to raise it.

[Logical me]

I don't care what the majority voted to do, they don't have a right to steal my money just because they vote for it.

And I'm in the same boat. What can we do about it? Not a damn thing I can think of until the riots begin when the freebies get cut off. Our so call conservatives in Government are lazy and scared to death to do what is necessary. The Country has not got the picture of what it has done, but you just wait a few months. Hell will break out.

[pgkdan]

You tell me, what's fair about that when medieval serfs pay 25%, I'm paying half? I don't care what the majority voted to do, they don't have a right to steal my money just because they vote for it.

I agree but how do we stop them from doing it? Ballots didn't work. What's next? Bullets?

[pelican001]

Damn straight, Peter! The Eighth Commandment doesn't provide an exemption for theft based on a vote.

[praytell]

Move to a non state income place such as Texas or Florida. Keep more of your money. Shouldnt have to be that way, but 60 million Amerikans have the government thinking for them since they obviously dont have the mental capacities to do so themselves.

[Teacher317]

I’m not close to the top 2%, and I still recognize the absolute idiocy (and clear unfairness) of it.

[crosshairs]

We’re a democracy now. Which means mob rules.

[george76]

Go Galt

[wayoverontheright]

I oppose higher tax rates on the “rich” precisely BECAUSE of the adverse affect it will have on the poor.

The “rich” happen to have a function in the private sector, and that of course is to put excess capital at risk. Without having altruistic motives, the “rich” function as benefactors to the poor, because they are our employers and our investors.

Extracting money through taxes from the “rich” causes layoffs (harms the poor), and increased prices on everything, every product and every service, that these “rich” employers provide. This also harms the poor.

In short, the poor will pay disproportionately for the increased taxes on the “rich”.

This is the way we should be articulating our opposition to taxes on the “rich”.

[Buckeye McFrog]

If the media could do such a number on Romney over his innocuous, 47% comment, this guy is gonna get held up for absolute slaughter.

[Michael Barnes]

Were a long way off from the “riots”. There is still our private retirement funds to steal first.

[kevkrom]

I’m not in the top 2% — far from it, in fact, and I don’t support raising their taxes.

[patriotspride]

We need to force the media to stop using % , and rich as definers.

Make them use actual numbers.

I’d wager that most americans would not consider $250,000 as Rich.

They probably think “rich” is a multi - millionaire

[muir_redwoods]

I am slowly moving that to real estate and metals. The metal purchases are what some might call “structured” but I’m playing by the letter of the law. For now.

[sanjuanbob]

While I concur with your theft philosophy, keep in mind that they’re not taxing your money; only your currency. That little piece of paper that says $100, isn’t backed by anything other than an increasingly shaky confidence that it will be honored as “money”. You could wake up one morning to find out that it’s lost 30-40% of its value. Hopefully you’re heavily invested in gold..in your personal safe, guarded appropriately.

[MrB]

That’s the deceiver’s game - obfuscate the language, distort the meanings of words, use words that mean one thing to the listener and mean another thing to the speaker.

The founder of the left’s ideology is a liar and the father of lies, there is no truth in him/them.

[Vigilanteman]

If the media could do such a number on Romney over his innocuous, 47% comment . . .

I get zero in government assistance but am easily in the bottom 47% of income earners.

If Romney can be so smeared for simply telling the truth, it shows nothing more than the inordinate influence the enemedia has on our culture.

Their credibility needs to be totally destroyed and when, not if, it happens, a token number of some of their worst toadies will have to suffer the same fate as did Nazi architect Julius Streicher to emphasize the point.

Schiff only has the guts to say what many of the rest of us are thinking. There will be more money disappearing into the black market. More tax avoidance schemes, both legal and otherwise. And more people (like me) on the margins who say "to hell with it! I'm tired of pulling the wagon when so many of those riding it are better off than I. Maybe I'll ride too!"

[MrB]

I’m sure it’s not far off when I get “taken up” on this challenge, but so far, no takers...

I challenge my lib-in-laws, whenever they are defending wealth transfers, “if you want the money out of my wallet to give to somebody else, come get it.”

(From “Nutty Professor”: “you’ll walk over, but you’ll limp back”)

[unixfox]

Were a long way off from the “riots”. There is still our private retirement funds to steal first.

And when that doesn't spark any outrage?

[jboot]

Ballots didn't work. What's next?

Schiff tells us the answer: starve the beast. Investors will shift the taxable assets that they can out of the USA and will "reduce the footprint" of the rest. Those hikes which are unavoidable will be passed along to employees and customers in the form of lower wages and higher prices. The Laffer Curve will out.

This is why the left has begun buzzing about a Global Income Tax.

[GlockThe Vote]

Most liberals and communists have the mentality of criminals and thieves, its just that they don’t want themselves to get their hands dirty. Easier to vote for someone promising to do the larceny on their behalf.

[greyfox]

You ,ake a good point: Te more onerous the tax laws become the more redily honest citizens will provoked to cheat. I doubt this fact is calculated into the overall revenue the fed hopes to bring in. And they winder why people become tac cheats, it’s not rocket science. The underground economy will grow as taxes are seen to be more and more infair. To reign in the underground economy you will need an ever increasing bureacracy which in turn will increase the ranks of the unemployed providing an expanding tax base and so it goes round and round. And who wins? Government!

[greyfox]

You ,ake a good point: Te more onerous the tax laws become the more redily honest citizens will provoked to cheat. I doubt this fact is calculated into the overall revenue the fed hopes to bring in. And they wonder why people become tax cheats, it’s not rocket science. The underground economy will grow as taxes are seen to be more and more infair. To reign in the underground economy you will need an ever increasing bureacracy which in turn will increase the ranks of the unemployed providing an expanding tax base, but ner enough for the left, and so it goes round and round. And who wins? Government!

[greyfox]

You make a good point: Te more onerous the tax laws become the more redily honest citizens will provoked to cheat. I doubt this fact is calculated into the overall revenue the fed hopes to bring in. And they wonder why people become tax cheats, it’s not rocket science. The underground economy will grow as taxes are seen to be more and more infair. To reign in the underground economy you will need an ever increasing bureacracy which in turn will increase the ranks of the unemployed providing an expanding tax base, but never enough for the left, and so it goes round and round. And who wins? Government!

[Yashcheritsiy]

As far as I am concerned, voting for those who promise to “soak the rich” ought to be cause for disenfranchising a person.

[PieterCasparzen]

Damn straight, Peter! The Eighth Commandment doesn't provide an exemption for theft based on a vote.

This brings up an essential point. The U.S. is not an explicitly Biblical nation. No explicit reference is made in the Constitituion or Declaration of Independence to “include by reference” anything about the Bible, there is no legal requirement that government actions or laws comply with Scripture.

Quite simply, Constitutionally, the U.S. allows for laws to be instituted that legalize theft, as long as they are passed into law by legal means. The only morality that is imposed is whatever morality is represented by the political whims of Congress.

The Congress and States passed laws that effected the IRS and it's regulations and redistributive taxing scheme, and so it is the law of the land. At no time was there any requirement to verify the law's compatibility with Scripture.

In the interest of avoiding religious persecution by the State, the Constitution provided blanket protection of any religion without regards to it's content, even including all sorts of evil and wicked cults.

Superficially, this appears to leave the responsibility to individuals to maintain good Christian Churches as an influential part of society. Such thinking, however, neglects to consider the considerable advantage in forming public opinion that subversive groups, whose leaders have malicious or treasonous intent and organize their followers in carrying out their schemes in secrecy, have over decent, God-fearing yet unsuspecting individuals.

The door being left open, evil crept in.

Accordingly, there is no requirement that God's law word be upheld by the U.S. government, and the Biblical purpose of government having the “power of the sword”, namely, that of restraining evil, appears to be accomplished less and less. Taxing those who produce and not taxing those who do not produce was voted into law a hundred years ago.

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[MrB]

They get really irritated when I walk them through their guilt, too.

Would it be wrong for you to steal my money?
Would it be wrong for you to steal my money to give to someone else?
Would it be wrong for you and 3 other people to steal my money and give it to someone else?
Would it be wrong for you and 300 other people to steal my money and give it to someone else?
3000?
3 million?

[Adder]

While I totally agree, perhaps we DO let the “rich” pay more and PROVE the folly of doing so to the cretins who LOSE because of it.Rub their noses in the pile of crap they create....

The pubbies don’t have the stones to defy zero so get it over with and do it. They will NOT make friends letting us go over the cliff because of the rise of everyone’s taxes...dumbles are just waiting for that stupid move...

[VRWC For Truth]

There is no revenue problem. There is a massive SPENDING problem. The gov’t can confiscate everyone’s income, savings, assets, and wealth today and the gov’t will STILL be in debt. It’s beyond ridiculous.

[Positive]

The ancient saying is not "Majority Rights" or "Majority Ethics" or "Majority Morals.

Correctly it is "Majority Rules"!!!

Centuries ago a philosopher wrote "democracy cannot succeed because as soon as the populace learns that it can vote itself money it will begin to collapse.

This is one of the reasons that we are NOT a democracy, we are a "Representative Republic". The politicians were to be the "adults" in our society.

Regretfully, this concept has been deteriorating for decades and has finally reached its "cliff".

[factoryrat]

You voted for a socialist/fascist to run the show, so now the normal rules do not apply anymore. Now, you have to do what the new ruler/government tells you to do, at the point of a gun, or worse. Ain’t socialism/fascism wonderful! But only as long as you stay in the dictator’s good graces though.

[Vaduz]

Don’t understand why the feds don’t go to a flat tax system.they would take in more monay with it.
The extortion tax system we now have is a failing system.

[Positive]

The ancient saying is not "Majority Rights" or "Majority Ethics" or "Majority Morals.

Correctly it is "Majority Rules"!!!

Centuries ago a philosopher wrote "democracy cannot succeed because as soon as the populace learns that it can vote itself money it will begin to collapse.

This is one of the reasons that we are NOT a democracy, we are a "Representative Republic". The politicians were to be the "adults" in our society.

Regretfully, this concept has been deteriorating for decades and has finally reached its "cliff".

[SMARTY]

I call it institutionalized theft.

In the mail the other day, I got a request from some group, for a donation.

My answer to them (in their own postage envelope):

“America elected a President who said that I am rich and that I am NOT paying my share.

He will hire people to take my money from me FOR you.

If you need help, contact the people the President has hired to take money from me, on YOUR BEHALF!”

I’ll be responding like this for the next four years.

[GlockThe Vote]

Like i said - most liberals have the mentality of a vandal and are like wolves.

[Positive]

"As far as I am concerned, voting for those who promise to “soak the rich” ought to be cause for disenfranchising a person."

Which reminds me of a joke I heard the other day: What do you call those two people who won that $350Million dollar Powerball Tax Jackpot the other day? -- "New Republicans!"

[mosaicwolf]

"I don't care what the majority voted to do, they don't have a right to steal my money....."

They don't need a right to take your money my friend. Remember, all political power comes from the barrel of a gun. That applies to the government as well as the citizen.

[Little Ray]

We have failed to keep the Republic and now, we have a Democracy. And, yes, Mr. Schiff, they can vote to take your money.

This is why, until the 1930s, US military fields manuals described Democracy as a bad thing - mob rule or anarchy. What changed? We elected FDR...

[mosaicwolf]

A flat tax system means less votes for the rats. Think about it.

[MrB]

Most sheeperals cringe at that reality as well.
They don’t want to believe that they are threatening deadly force in order to “do good”.
They just want to feel good about themselves for “helping people”, even though they are doing nothing but voting and advocating.

They’ll even deny that deadly force is threatened.
I’ll walk them down a scenario that will end with an agent of the government shooting a citizen for non-compliance.
Their usual response to this is “if he’d just complied, he wouldn’t have been shot”, and they don’t get that they’ve just proven the point.
My response to that is “the government could have stopped trying to make him comply at some point as well.”

[showme_the_Glory]

"Rub their noses in the pile of crap they create...."

Sorry but the MSM will never let that happen. We will get our noses rubbed in it. White males, tea party folks, conservatives, working people, etc.

[Eagle of Liberty]

The “rich” happen to have a function in the private sector, and that of course is to put excess capital at risk.

There seems to be a problem with what is going on in Washington with this "Rich" debate. You know darn well that those "Representatives" in Washington, yes those RICH people in Washington, are NOT going to change the rules to cause themselves any economic harm, but those are THE PEOPLE who escape much of these debates every time!

IMO, these debates purposely set up straw men to distract the lazy reader.

[hal ogen]

It would only be “fair”...

[Vaduz]

I don’t think they worry about that they have mastered the art of jimmying votes,note 1960 and 2012.
Russia went to a 15% flat tax system and it is working out just fine.
Europe is dumping it’s old socialism system and yet Obama&Co are going to it.

[Eagle of Liberty]

Make them use actual numbers.

Agreed. And then we need to talk about where the REAL wealth is held in this country and by who. And then we need to discuss how increasing income tax percentages does not really even go after those that the 99%ers despise.

The other item we need to have some serious discussions on is the topic of Hypocrisy! Here you have a President and a Party that desires more revenue for whatever they want that revenue for, yet last year, they reduced the payroll tax rate? That is THE instrument for funding SS. How about The House says, "Okay, you want more revenue? Here is what WE think needs more revenue. We think that the SS program needs more revenue, so we will pass a bill that removes the cap for SS funding and that is our bill."

[Jude in WV]

Added to Federal and State income tax is:
Local Income tax
Real estate & Personal Property tax
Tax on utilities
Sales tax
Federal excise taxes
surcharges on insurance
fire fees

The middle class gets to keep much less than half of their income.

[Eagle of Liberty]

Centuries ago a philosopher wrote "democracy cannot succeed because as soon as the populace learns that it can vote itself money it will begin to collapse.

IOW, one particular Party decided to do away with being the "adults" in the room and set their goal on becoming Rulers of the democracy and promised goodies to all who kept them in power.

[Myrddin]

There are some people who would have no problem stealing your money. Turn the argument. Ask if it is OK for you to steal money from the person you're questioning. Ramp it up as before. Push the outrage button. Let that person understand the sting of theft instead of trying to tweak a guilty heart string that may not exist.