LawPolitics

Seattle liberals just challenged their state constitution

Progressives are angry people. They see injustice in the world everywhere, and they really want to correct it. They want to make things more equal, they always claim. So, to make things more equal, they violate the principle of justice: every person equal under the law.

For a long time, Washington state’s Constitution has thwarted the state’s liberals’ attempts to spread their agenda far and wide across that land. It limited any state income tax to a flat 1%, no matter how much you make. Liberals call this “regressive” because it applies equally to the rich and to the poor.

Kind of like God’s tithe. They would say God’s principle of the tithe, 10% regardless of who you are, is unfair, punitive, and “regressive.”

Now, they’re aggressively challenging this. The city passed a tax of 2.25% on individuals making over $250,000 or couples making $500,000. The old system — one rate for everybody — just isn’t fair:

“Seattle is challenging this state’s antiquated and unsustainable tax structure by passing a progressive income tax,” said Mayor Ed Murray in a statement. “Our goal is to replace our regressive tax system with a new formula for fairness, while ensuring Seattle stands up to President Trump’s austere budget that cuts transportation, affordable housing, healthcare, and social services. This is a fight for economic stability, equity, and justice.”

“PROGRESSIVE” MEANS UNJUST

You see, the name of the game for the liberals is wealth redistribution. They seek power through politics. Politics requires winning a majority of the votes. But liberals want to regulate the details of our lives. They want to tell people how many ounces of soft drink they can consume. Or how many ounces of water their toilet can flush. They also want to let men use women’s bathrooms, and vice versa.

They would not win the votes if they came to the people with these proposals. So, instead, they need to make a deal. Give a little, get a little.

These dumb regulations begin as laws that are passed by Congress, and then the specifics are spelled out in minute detail by the bureaucrats who write the actual regulations. But, to get these laws passed, the liberals figured out a long time ago that they need to buy our vote. They learned long ago that they could pay off the middle class with free retirement (Social Security), free medical benefits (Medicare), and lots of jobs in the military sector (war spending), just to name a few.

But, to afford massive payoffs like these, they need money.

Pareto’s law tells us where most of the money is: 80% of the nation’s wealth is held by 20% of the citizens or corporations. Going further, 64% of the wealth is held by just 4% of the citizens. Going one more step, Pareto’s law tells us that about half the nation’s wealth is held by just 1% of the population.

This means that only 20% the nation’s wealth is held by the remaining 80% of the population. So, to fund the payoff, the liberals have to go where the money is: the wealthy. They appeal to the citizens’ envy: “Tax the rich! Soak the rich! Make’m pay their fair share!”

This translates into the graduated income tax: the more money you make, the higher percentage you pay in taxes. Most of that money is then redistributed to the middle class. In exchange, the middle class allows the liberals (in both parties) to pass onerous regulations that interfere with our lives and our economy.

WISH I COULD PAY MORE TAXES

The liberals pushing this appeal are rich. Not Seattle’s definition of rich, but rich like preposterous. Look at what one supporter said:

” ‘Seattle should serve everyone, not just rich folks,’ software developer Carissa Knipe told the council before the 9-0 vote, saying she makes more than $170,000 per year.

” ‘I would love to be taxed,’ the 24-year-old from Ballard testified, drawing applause from a room packed with supporters of the tax.”

She would love to be taxed. Unfortunately, she only makes $170,000 a year. She just barely slides under the new tax cutoff of $250,000. Aw, shucks. But still, she would love to be taxed.

PRINCIPLE OF JUSTICE

The reality of life is this: we can have either equality before the law, or politicians can attempt to create economic equality. Jesus said the poor will always be with us (Mark 14:7). To attempt to change this reality by force of law is to conjure the alchemical forces of mysticism and transmute lead into gold. It will always end in failure. And sometimes even in the death of the magician.

Attempting to use the legal system to create economic equality is to violate the biblical principle of justice: one law that applies equally to everyone (Lev. 24:22).

Regardless of their wealth. “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly” (Lev. 19:15).

The graduated income tax shows partiality to the poor. The regulations, as written, show favoritism to the great, because they are embedded with loopholes that let the rich escape the onerous tax burden the middle class and poor try to saddle them with.

TRAPPED

Instead, the middle class have fallen into their own snare. They lack the money to form the corporations that allow the rich to escape the taxes. Inflation slowly raises their nominal income levels, even while their buying power declines. The tax exemptions aren’t automatically adjusted for inflation. Over the last 100 years, the noose has slowly tightened around the neck of the middle class worker. In 1913, the standard exemption practically exempted him from paying any income tax at all.

In 2017, it is so small that it’s practically worthless in shielding the bulk of his income from the tax collector.

This could all change. Right now, we yell and scream at the injustice of this or that, but we don’t follow through with our vote. All we have to do is reject the legitimacy of government welfare, for all classes. The liberals would then lose all power over conservatives and most of the country.

The government would shrink, and liberty would increase. That is a day to look forward to.

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