There is a long tradition in political philosophy holding that public policy should reflect certain moral principles.

Not everyone agrees, of course. Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Hobbes, for example, came close to saying that “might makes right.” But the political thinkers who shaped the American form of government believed that legitimate government exists for moral purposes.

How does that idea apply to taxation?

The Biblical commandment is clear enough: “Thou shall not steal.”

Since taxation is clearly a “taking” under threat of coercion, we can ask, where does it cross the line from “legitimacy” to “theft”? That there is such a line is implicit in almost all modern political discourse. On the left, for example, there is the frequent claim that the rich are not paying “their fair share.” “Fairness” is paramount. ChatGPT cannot find a single example of a prominent politician arguing that the rich should pay more than their fair share.

Yet, as I discuss below, there are some prominent Left-Wing thinkers who believe that government should approach the rich the way a common-variety street hoodlum views his prey: take whatever you can get away........

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