Equal rights, not equal things

Editor's note: The following letter to the editor was sent in response to the April 30 letter "Contrasting view on taxes."

Consider the following:

Life plus liberty equals property.

The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.

Most citizens believe in a social contract between themselves and government they institute. The contract is predicated on three pillars that provide for efficiencies of the citizens' property rights. Governments are formed by the people to preserve order, protect property and provide access to public services. The efficiencies provided for by instituted governments come in the forms of a police force to preserve order, a fire department to protect property and access to public water works system. The citizens are willing to forfeit a portion of their property, in the form of money, to fund these services. By reducing property to pay for these services, a corresponding opportunity cost of liberty is lost.

The true loss of liberty comes from confiscating of property, through taxes, and redistributing it to provide equal things. The property seized through the coercive power of government from the taxpayer to provide for equal things does not pass the "protect equal right" test for the role of government.

The author did an outstanding job in using a quote from Supreme Court Justice Holmes and suggests his point carries the most weight.

Justice Holmes does not have the final word on taxes. Judge Learned Hand said, "The legal right of the taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or altogether avoid by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted."

DAVID LARSON, Jackson