Thomas Sowell Quote

"The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody else deserves. You can talk about 'social justice' all you want. But what death taxes boil down to is letting politicians take money from widows and orphans to pay for goodies that they will hand out to others, in order to buy votes to get re-elected. That is not social justice or any other kind of justice."

by:	Thomas Sowell (1930- ) Writer and economist
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Categories:	Democracy, God, Government, Justice, Politics, Power, Socialism, Taxation, Tyranny, Usurpation, Vote, Election, Black, Death, Tax
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All taxes look unjust to the people who have to pay them. There are only a handful of "widows and orphans" who are required to pay the estate tax. It's hard to cry much for persons who are suffering under the hardship of millions of dollars.  -- wingstitch, beaver dam, wisconsin      1 9
-- Anonymous
Right on wingstich!  -- Anonymous, Reston, VA US      1 2
Dr Sowell is one of the greatest moralists, and economists of our time and as usual he is right on the money. Any real American could not disagree with his statement. Democrats, Socialists and Communists, all basically the same thing really, and all: never met a tax they did not like, believe only the wealthy have responsibilites and they are the best judge of who needs your money the most, and what it should be used for. They are not Americans an know nothing of Liberty!  -- helorat, Milton      5 1
One dollar or millions, why should anyone pay taxes on money that has alread been taxed? Completely unjust, wingnut and Reston.  -- Joe, Rochester, MI      4 1
Right on Thomas Sowell, Joe, and particularly helorat. GOOD DEAL!!! This is not about money...its about power. Always was, and always will be. Its amazing how, in the liberal/socialist mindset, there are always two groups...those who produce, and those who believe they have a right to what someone else has and are willing to take it by force...the liberal/socialists being of the second stripe...right Reston? They say as the old USSR used to say: "What ours is our. What's yours is negotiable."  -- Michael, Houston      3 1
Theft is theft, it doesn't matter if you put the title 'tax' on it. To compel an individual to work a percentage of hours for his master and then the remainder for him self, as determined by the fruits thereof, is a most heinous theft, it is slavery. No one deserves the ends, means, or fruits of theft or slavery.  -- Mike, Norwalk      6 1
Who are the most affected by inheritance taxes? Small businesses like farms, grocers, hardware stores, etc., that are worth a few million dollars in capital assets and very little cash. So what happens when a death occurs? Widows and orphans have to sell the family farm to pay the tax. Is this fair? It is to wingstitch and Anonymous, heartless liberals that they are. Churchill said that if you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative when you are old, you have no brain. He had it wrong. If you are a liberal at any age, you have neither a heart or a brain.  -- Ken, Allyn, WA      5
And that is the very crux of wealth redistribution -- sounds fair, but WHO gets the power to decide who to take from and who to give to? Absolute power corrupts absolutely...  -- E Archer, NYC      3
Multi-stage thinking at it's finest!  -- Erik Kritter, Rocky Mount, VA      1
Hey, Wingstitch . . . as usual, you've missed the point. Charity shouldn't be legislated. I don't care if it's a million dollars or a buck, the money that we earn with our hard work should be given to whomever we choose. If we choose to give it to a charity, bully for us. If we choose to pass it on to an heir, they should not be forced to pay a penalty for receiving it. If you subscribe to the socialist ideology, you're screwing around with your rights and freedoms, as well. You just don't realize it yet.  -- Wendy, Charlotte, NC      4 1
Amen  -- Bob, Spring Hill, TN      1
Thomas Sowell Rocks!  -- Corey, Silver Spring, MD      2
Wake up America!!!! Sleeping Giant!!!  -- donna, jackson, nj      1
Income tax goes directly to pay the interest on the loans taken by an immoral government from a private entity we did not elect and is accountable to no one. Rather than provide funds for infrastructure as required, income tax, the death tax and the majority of all taxation goes into the pockets of private bankers who "control" your representative. It serves only to impoverish an otherwise free people. It's immorality of the highest order. Proponents of this sort of tax system are either directly benefitting from it, or just plain too stupid to know when they are being fleeced as inventory. Thomas Sowell Rocks!  -- J Carlton, Calgary      4 1
The term death tax was started y a wealthy California family and their lawyer. Estate taxes have been around a long time. When assets pass to someone else after death they often have an appreciated capital gain that has never been taxed. Let us face it, inheritance is nothing more than WELFARE for people you care about. Public assistance is welfare for people you don't care about. Most folk wish their own to fare well but often to do not care much about how others may fare. This may be a short sighted attitude.  -- Waffler, Smith      1 3
Waffler...I rest my case. ;-) You are proof positive of my above assertion.  -- J Carlton, Calgary      2
This is what Frederic Bastiat referred to as one of the means of Legalized Plunder! "But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime." -- Frederic Bastiat Love your statement Wendy!  -- Mary-MI      2 1
Wingstitch and waffler are equally nuts. Public assistance has nothing to do with inheritance . Public assistance comes from money forceably taken through taxation.  -- jim k, Austin, Tx      2 1
Waffler, keeping your own money is not 'welfare' -- taking my money and giving it to someone else is 'welfare.' The tax collectors (like Waffler) forget that it is OUR money, not theirs. Only in a totalitarian regime is everything the government's and we simply tenants on Crown property. The idea that government is and should be our perpetual benefactor is ludicrous -- they produce nothing and are supposed to be protecting us from theft not engaging in it. Totalitarians worship power and thus politicians act like demi-gods. And death taxes are particularly onerous because what a man is able to save after a lifetime of labor and inflation which has already stolen 90% of his purchasing power, the FEDERAL government (which has no authority to tax individuals in the first place) takes 50% of everything one has saved in a life time is the final blow to make sure this family never becomes self-sufficient and perpetually in debt to the Rockefellers and other uber rich families that have avoided their own estates from taxation. You libs are STUPID because not only are you keeping your fellow man down but you are protecting the wealthy monopolists you claim to abhor. You are tools for the wealthy and benefit as house slaves by helping keep the rest of us on the plantation. The last thing a lib wants is for someone to own their own plantation and live off the land.  -- E Archer, NYC      2 1
Right on the money! Thomas Sowell is one of the great minds of our time.  -- Chuck B, Hudson Valley, NY      2
-- Ken, Spokane
I wonder how fair wingstitch would think the death tax was if he or his family had to pay it.you dont have to have millions to be taxed to death.  -- DonTheTrucker, Hoosier      2
Social justice authorizes the taking by force of rewards earned by others and appoints itself "just" as its minions decide arbitrarily how much each person deserves without knowing or caring what each person contributes--good or bad. Equal justice allows personal responsibility so each person must discover their own value, may keep the rewards of their efforts (for themselves and their posterity) as well as reap the consequences--good and bad--of their own choices. A society can have either equal justice or social justice but not both for where there is social justice there is NO real justice at all.  -- empty pockets, NO, La      1 1
The ignorance of Wingnut and Reston, induced by social engineering wingnuts to boot. What we find happening now, the age old, old world tyrannical despots seeking to overthrow the Sovereign Individuals that spring up Naturally from time to time. Even in a time when most are domesticated, nature dictates the need for Independence. Separation brings to Light, thing that are different, are Not the same. The laziness of most in class, breeds contempt for those that Get It. Glad to say, Faith is the most powerful thing in the universe. Even a secular humanistic individual understands that without faith in themselves, there is no strength to succeed in life. a smart socialist, is better than a poor socialist fool, which has no understanding of his surroundings. Inheritance, has been fought over for thousands and thousands of years. Independence and the rightful ground to stand and fight to maintain it. No higher ground can be found, than to Trust in The Creator. The Phenomena unfolds before the eyes of man as Divine Providence takes hold. Thomas Sowell, is right on point. We know who he backs, and the old tyrannical establishment fears both, not only man, but the Creator spoken of so Lovingly by our Founding Fathers. Or better yet those who signed the Declaration of Independence. The Big Bang of Understanding !  -- Ronw13, Yachats OR      1
-- Rodger Whistler, San Diego
The Death Tax has stolen more family farms and Sub S corps (family businesses) than all the Robber Barons, combined. Wingstitch needs to study economics, somewhere besides Madison.  -- Burgie, Anaheim, CA      2
-- John C. Davidson, Mount Vernon
-- Rita, Richland
By example, the 2nd plank of the communist manifesto is larceny that enslaves. The U.S. became the most prosperous, giving and free nation in the world without said 2nd plank. Enslavement of the once noble free is now realizing the suffering result under such heinous tyranny.  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
Dr. Sowell, you underestimate the reasoning and rational capabilities of the human mind. It is the human like role we are in dire need of to divide resource allocations in the appropriate manner. The is no god or supernatural phoenomenom required or a available for that matter. We humans have capacities and capabilities to effectively and efficiently make the correct resource designations and in the proper manner. Socialism is the challenge of socialized behavior to create fair resource allocations.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1
Sillik, your theocratic nonsense is empty dribble. You state there is no god outside your religion's carnal gods. The Deity I worship is available to all — even socialists. Sillik, which of your gods is correctly able to allocate another god's resource designations? Socialism challenges individual sovereignty, inalienable rights and liberty at nature's law. Socialism, through its many denominations, creates censorship, illogical dialogue, pain, suffering, poverty, anger, violence, death, war and all else that is contrary to the nobility of man.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Mike, Norwalk, once again, I have no gods or devils. I just look at the historically provided information and arrive at the conclusion that all the homo-sapiens species are quite equal and decide that resources should be distributed accordingly, pretty much equal.  Also, once again I have to inform you that your deity is not available to anyone for there is no such supernatural phoenomenom. Socialism is the challenge of socialized behavior to create reality.     -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1
Sillik, spoken like a good socialist. Your redefinition of words (such as gods and devils) betray you. Your gods (by example; Marx, Mao, Stalin, Hitler, etc.) have created the theocratic dogmas and propaganda that you parret; AND, your devils are all those that don't support your mental illness. I believe that each and every individual is equal before the law. Can you please define your equality through scientific methods / processes? Socialism challenges individual sovereignty, inalienable rights and liberty at nature's law. Socialism, through its many denominations, creates censorship, illogical dialogue, pain, suffering, poverty, anger, violence, death, war and all else that is contrary to the nobility of man.  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
Mike, Norwalk, I don't believe I redefined words in this instance, I just rejected the relevance of the concepts in this circumstance.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown

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