{"id":11734,"date":"2010-04-10T07:30:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-10T14:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=11734"},"modified":"2010-06-26T07:52:28","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T14:52:28","slug":"mark-steyn-we-are-now-not-merely-disincentivizing-economic-energy-but-actively-waging-war-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11734\/mark-steyn-we-are-now-not-merely-disincentivizing-economic-energy-but-actively-waging-war-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Steyn: “We are now not merely disincentivizing economic energy but actively waging war on it.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shrug, Atlas, shrug. Mark Steyn from Investors’ Business Daily:<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In less than a quarter-millennium, the American Revolution will have evolved from “No taxation without representation” to representation without taxation. We have bigger government, bigger bureaucracy, bigger spending, bigger deficits, bigger debt, and yet an ever smaller proportion of citizens paying for it. The top 5% of taxpayers contribute 60% of revenue. The top 10% provide 75%. Another two-fifths make up the rest. And half are exempt.<\/p>\n

This isn’t redistribution \u2014 a “leveling” to address the “mal-distribution” of income, as Sen. Max Baucus, (D-Kleptocristan) put it the other day. It isn’t even “spreading the wealth around,” as then Sen. Barack Obama put it in an unfortunate off-the-prompter moment during the 2008 campaign.<\/p>\n

Rather, it’s an assault on the moral legitimacy of the system. If you accept the principle of a tax on income, it might seem reasonable to exclude the very poor from having to contribute to it. But in no meaningful sense can half the country be considered “poor.” The U.S. income tax is becoming the 21st century equivalent of the “jizya” \u2014 the punitive tax levied by Muslim states on their non-Muslim citizens: In return for funding the Islamic imperium, the infidels were permitted to carry on practicing their faith.<\/p>\n

Likewise, under the American jizya, in return for funding Big Government, nonbelievers are permitted to carry on practicing their faith in capitalism, small business, economic activity and the other primitive belief systems to which they cling so touchingly.<\/p>\n

In the Islamic world, the infidel tax base eventually wised up. You can see it literally in the landscape in rural parts of the Balkans: Christian tradesmen got fed up paying the jizya and moved out of the towns up into remote hills far from the shakedown crowd.<\/p>\n

In less mountainous terrain where it’s harder to lie low, non-Muslims found it easier to convert. That’s partly what drove Islamic expansion. Once Araby was all-Muslim, it was necessary to move on to the Levant, and to Persia, and to Central Asia and North Africa and India and Europe \u2014 in search of new infidels to mug.<\/p>\n

Don’t worry, I’m not Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shrug, Atlas, shrug. Mark Steyn from Investors’ Business Daily: In less than a quarter-millennium, the American Revolution will have evolved from “No taxation without representation” to representation without taxation. We have bigger government, bigger bureaucracy, bigger spending, bigger deficits, bigger debt, and yet an ever smaller proportion of citizens paying for it. The top 5% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-group-therapy","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18470,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18470\/overnight-news-see-atlas-shrug-shrug-atlas-shrug\/","url_meta":{"origin":11734,"position":0},"title":"Overnight News: \u201cSee Atlas shrug? Shrug, Atlas, shrug!\u201d","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Legitimacy, ultimately, is a bargain: In exchange for my not fighting City Hall, City Hall agrees to do its deal as efficiently as possible and to stay out of my business otherwise. What happens when City Hall gradually reneges on the deal? Not rebellion out right, certainly not right away,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14931,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14931\/mark-steyn-if-charlton-heston-was-horrified-to-discover-the-planet-of-the-apes-was-his-own-britons-are-beginning-to-realize-that-the-remote-desert-island-of-lord-of-the-flies-is-in-fact-loca\/","url_meta":{"origin":11734,"position":1},"title":"Mark Steyn: “If Charlton Heston was horrified to discover the Planet of the Apes was his own, Britons are beginning to realize that the remote desert island of ‘Lord Of The Flies’ is, in fact, located just off the coast of Europe in the northeast Atlantic.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm getting quit of bitching at people, but I confess, always, to taking delight in well-written castigation. For eloquent excoriation, none surpasses that of Mark Steyn:Within two generations of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, a significant proportion of the once-free British people entrusted themselves to social rewiring by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11435,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11435\/mark-steyn-when-responsibility-doesn%e2%80%99t-pay\/","url_meta":{"origin":11734,"position":2},"title":"Mark Steyn: “When Responsibility Doesn\u2019t Pay”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"National Review Online:Think of Greece as California: Every year an irresponsible and corrupt bureaucracy awards itself higher pay and better benefits paid for by an ever-shrinking wealth-generating class. And think of Germany as one of the less profligate, still-just-about-functioning corners of America such as my own state of New Hampshire:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5086,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5086\/mark-steyn-writes-about-joe-the-plumber-while-its-still-legal\/","url_meta":{"origin":11734,"position":3},"title":"Mark Steyn writes about Joe the Plumber — while it’s still legal","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking forward to the day when he won't have to go to Canada to be persecuted for being an insanely great writer, Mark Steyn takes on the Joe the Plumber investigation:Joe the Plumber expressed his misgivings about the President-in-waiting\u2019s tax inclinations, and the O-Man smoothly reassured him: \u201cIt\u2019s not that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14517,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14517\/in-order-to-fund-government-services-for-the-wealthiest-poor-people-on-the-planet-we-borrow-money-from-a-nation-of-subsistence-peasants-where-pigs-are-such-prized-possessions-they-sleep-in-the-h\/","url_meta":{"origin":11734,"position":4},"title":"“In order to fund government services for the wealthiest ‘poor’ people on the planet we borrow money from a nation of subsistence peasants where pigs are such prized possessions they sleep in the house.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The incomparable Mark Steyn. 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In consequence, it has set itself the task of persecuting Canadian publishers for the crime of having published. 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