Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ccice5.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!rochester!ritcv!ccice5!rdz
From: rdz@ccice5.UUCP (Robert D. Zarcone)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Taxation is theft?
Message-ID: <674@ccice5.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Feb-85 13:14:24 EST
Article-I.D.: ccice5.674
Posted: Fri Feb 15 13:14:24 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 18-Feb-85 06:29:00 EST
References: <326@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <utzoo.5031>, <1370@dciem.UUCP> <5045@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: CCI Central Engineering, Rochester, NY
Lines: 29

> I have yet to hear *anybody* say that ``the rich'' would be better
> off if you took money away from them. I have heard it said that
> ``they have so much that it doesn't matter to them whether you take
> it away from them'' and that ``it only hurts them a little, and there
> are few of them, and so many people who would benefit so that *overall*
> we are all better off'', but the logic of the second proposition rests on
> concluding that ``the greatest good for the greatest number'' is an
> ethical way to decide ones actions. And, following that, it does follow
> that one thinks that ``the poor'' deserve more money -- they deserve it
> because it would be ``the greatest good for the greatest number'' which
> is how one who strictly followed this formula of utilitarianism would
> determine who deserved what.
> 
> Laura VCreighton
> utzoo!laura

If I can remember correctly, the arguments from my economics courses were
basically like this:
1.  Private charity can not create an adequate social net. (I'm not going
    to argue this one with anybody; I believe it!)
2.  Without the social net, people would have no alternative but to get
    goods and services in any way they can.  (Criminal acts enter here)
3.  Criminal acts are going to be directed at those that have goods and
    services.  (The rich certainly have the goods)
So what the rich have to gain from the redistribution of wealth is their
lives.  That may seem far-fetched, but there are plenty of incidents from
history that show it can happen.

	*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***