Libertarianism is the moral principle that places human rights and preferences of each individual above the Greatest Happiness Principle which is to promote the capability of achieving highest happiness for the most number of people which is Utilitarianism.
While we can safely assume that Shahrukh Khan's life will not change much because of his next Crore Rupees, but if it is given to the hundreds of underserved children in form of school education or mid-day meal, these children then will have a real opportunity in life. This one crore will make a change that may last a whole life-time for a few hundred children. In other words, the incremental coercion of the wealthy for taxes is okay, because the resultant incremental benefit to the poor and the needy is much more.
Like the minority groups based on religion and sexual orientation, the wealthy are a minority in any democracy if seen purely in numbers. Let us assume that some of the wealthy have got their wealth by pure hard-work and intelligence, some luck of course, but no illegal means. Taxation for such people is a situation where the majority and their representative government coerces its way to the belongings of this minority, with the help of brute force such as Income Tax Dept. and the police. If one was to use the same principles as one would use for preserving other types of minority, taxes are unjust.
If we were to believe that taxation is right, then these individuals basically don't have all the right over the fruits of their labor and hard-work, that they somehow owe their income, i.e. the time and labor, in other words some part of their life, to the society. What we are also saying is that majority (not-wealthy) have rights over the lives and choices of minorities. What does this principle say about the rights and choices of minority groups such as immigrants, religious minorities, and LGBT?
Whether we like it or not, Taxation is utilitarian thinking, the larger good principle in action. To think that utilitarian thinking and all the economics that follows it is wrong, is a folly. The world we live in is so much more complicated than I like to think every morning when I get out of my bed.
While we can safely assume that Shahrukh Khan's life will not change much because of his next Crore Rupees, but if it is given to the hundreds of underserved children in form of school education or mid-day meal, these children then will have a real opportunity in life. This one crore will make a change that may last a whole life-time for a few hundred children. In other words, the incremental coercion of the wealthy for taxes is okay, because the resultant incremental benefit to the poor and the needy is much more.
Like the minority groups based on religion and sexual orientation, the wealthy are a minority in any democracy if seen purely in numbers. Let us assume that some of the wealthy have got their wealth by pure hard-work and intelligence, some luck of course, but no illegal means. Taxation for such people is a situation where the majority and their representative government coerces its way to the belongings of this minority, with the help of brute force such as Income Tax Dept. and the police. If one was to use the same principles as one would use for preserving other types of minority, taxes are unjust.
If we were to believe that taxation is right, then these individuals basically don't have all the right over the fruits of their labor and hard-work, that they somehow owe their income, i.e. the time and labor, in other words some part of their life, to the society. What we are also saying is that majority (not-wealthy) have rights over the lives and choices of minorities. What does this principle say about the rights and choices of minority groups such as immigrants, religious minorities, and LGBT?
Whether we like it or not, Taxation is utilitarian thinking, the larger good principle in action. To think that utilitarian thinking and all the economics that follows it is wrong, is a folly. The world we live in is so much more complicated than I like to think every morning when I get out of my bed.
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