486-Ignore the Republicans...What Do You Think Is the Right Approach To Income Taxation and Why?

I feel like I owe it to you to keep you semi-current on the state of tax policy in the USA. But, it's too early to have any serious details about the current Republican proposals. I thought instead we could have a useful philosophical discussion about taxation. My challenge to you today is to answer these questions, for yourself. Do you believe that a civil government has the moral right to tax an individual's income? Why or why not? Do you believe that the US civil government has the constitutional right to tax an individual's income? If you believe that a civil government does have this right, how much of a person's income can they claim? What's the right number and how would you know? Do you believe that everyone should be required to pay income taxes? Do you believe that some people should be treated differently than others and so be ordered to pay a different rate of income tax than others? Why or why not? If so, how would we determine who should be treated differently and how much of a difference there should be? Do you believe that government tax policy should be used to incentivize certain behaviors or to dis-incentivize other behaviors? If so, how would we know what behaviors should be incentivized and which ones shouldn't? Do you believe that tax policy should be used to give some people special benefits because of certain behaviors? Joshua