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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Taxation is theft?
Message-ID: <1370@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Feb-85 19:07:03 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.1370
Posted: Fri Feb  8 19:07:03 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Feb-85 01:06:04 EST
References: <326@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> 
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 20
Summary: 

In article  laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton) writes:


>These arguments are not the ones that are usually used to justify most
>of the ``taking from ``the rich'' to give to ``the poor''''. The argument that
>is used is that ``the poor'', by being so badly off, *deserve* more and that
>the force of this deserving is sufficient to take things away from ``the
>rich''. A lot of people profess to believe this.

I don't know how many people profess to believe it, but it is surely
a classic "straw man".  The reason for redistribution is that it makes
*everybody* better off, including those from whom wealth was *apparently*
taken.  This is the main argument, for example, in the Brandt report,
and I think you will find it an argument more people "profess to believe"
than the one you quote.
-- 

Martin Taylor
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