Whether the taxes are levied directly on people, or by stealth, the effect is the same. People have less to spend themselves because government is spending more of it instead. Herein lies the immorality of taxation. Taxation means compulsion. Our habit of clothing it in fine words often conceals the brute fact that taxation is the confiscation of our property by people who prefer to spend it on their priorities rather than ours.
Higher taxation means more compulsion.
It forces further retreat by individuals from the area of their lives in which they can make decisions and assume responsibilities. At the heart of the debate is the question of whether people are to live by their own values as adult citizens, or made to live according to the values of their government. Hague has opted for the former, and holds out the prospect of a more equal relationship in which citizens meet the government eye to eye and freely contract with it to discharge their obligations. The United States has just seen its annual list of the top 100 lifetime benefactors. The list includes Bill and Melinda Gates, rapidly making their way up its ranks, and even the actor Paul Newman, whose supermarket sauces pay every penny to charity.