Go Thou and Vote Likewise (part 3)
You can't discharge your Christian responsibilities to the poor by voting. That's as simple as I can state my my second objection to the notion that voting for leftish social policies is the Christian thing to do.
Let's start with the observation that the U.S. tax code is pretty progressive. That doesn't mean it's cool or fashion forward. It means that the higher your income, the greater percentage of it you are to pay in taxes. In 2006, the top 1% of income earners paid 40% of income taxes, the top 5% paid 60%, the top 10% 70% and the top 25% paid 86% of all income taxes. What this means is that if you vote in the expectation that taxes will go up and be used to give to poor people, you are very unlikely to be the one footing the bill. This is why "tax the rich" is such a popular campaign slogan - it's someone else's money.
Put it this way: is it charity to give your assent to taking from Peter to pay Paul? Is that love? Is this what Jesus was calling Christians to? I say no - charity and sacrifice have to be coterminous. That's a fancy way of saying the person loving and the person giving have to be the same person. You can't ask someone else (in this case the anonymous rich taxpayer) to fulfill the command Christ gave you.
From another perspective, raising taxes in order to increase transfer payments does not increase a nation's "net virtue." Here's why: governments can't make people love each other. They can take resources away by force (i.e. tax people), but they can't change anyone's heart. Our acts of charity toward the poor are not only about alleviating suffering - they are also about changing our hearts. Voting to raise someone else's taxes does not change our hearts. In fact, it can lead to a dangerous complacency* (witness Europe's very, very low rate of charitable giving. "I gave at the office...the tax office").
* Or worse. The next step after appealing to Christian virtue to raise taxes is to appeal to greed and envy. "I'll raise that rich guy's taxes and give you the goodies."
Let's start with the observation that the U.S. tax code is pretty progressive. That doesn't mean it's cool or fashion forward. It means that the higher your income, the greater percentage of it you are to pay in taxes. In 2006, the top 1% of income earners paid 40% of income taxes, the top 5% paid 60%, the top 10% 70% and the top 25% paid 86% of all income taxes. What this means is that if you vote in the expectation that taxes will go up and be used to give to poor people, you are very unlikely to be the one footing the bill. This is why "tax the rich" is such a popular campaign slogan - it's someone else's money.
Put it this way: is it charity to give your assent to taking from Peter to pay Paul? Is that love? Is this what Jesus was calling Christians to? I say no - charity and sacrifice have to be coterminous. That's a fancy way of saying the person loving and the person giving have to be the same person. You can't ask someone else (in this case the anonymous rich taxpayer) to fulfill the command Christ gave you.
From another perspective, raising taxes in order to increase transfer payments does not increase a nation's "net virtue." Here's why: governments can't make people love each other. They can take resources away by force (i.e. tax people), but they can't change anyone's heart. Our acts of charity toward the poor are not only about alleviating suffering - they are also about changing our hearts. Voting to raise someone else's taxes does not change our hearts. In fact, it can lead to a dangerous complacency* (witness Europe's very, very low rate of charitable giving. "I gave at the office...the tax office").
* Or worse. The next step after appealing to Christian virtue to raise taxes is to appeal to greed and envy. "I'll raise that rich guy's taxes and give you the goodies."
Labels: Christianity, Poverty, Progressive Income Tax
posted by Jeff Burton at
5:00 AM
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