{"id":4200,"date":"2010-03-12T14:22:59","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T19:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=4200"},"modified":"2010-03-12T14:22:59","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T19:22:59","slug":"delayed-tax-returns-and-the-victims-of-legal-plunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/4200\/delayed-tax-returns-and-the-victims-of-legal-plunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Delayed Tax Returns and the Victims of Legal Plunder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first time I read <a href=\"http:\/\/fee.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/thelaw-2008.pdf \" target=\"_blank\">Frederic Bastiat\u2019s <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Law<\/span><\/a> (pdf), I thought the Frenchman was a bit over the top when he described taxation as legalized plunder.\u00a0 After all, the only things certain in life are death and taxes, right?\u00a0 Then again, at the time I was in school and not responsible for my income.\u00a0 Drawing a paycheck changes a man\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 So too will being denied a tax refund from a government that plunder\u2019s a paycheck.<\/p>\n<p>My mind turned to Bastiat\u2019s classic when I read <em>USA Today<\/em>\u2019s report that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/nation\/2010-03-11-tax-refunds_N.htm?csp=34 \" target=\"_blank\">several states are considering delaying tax refunds<\/a> to <em>citizens who are owed the money<\/em> because the government just can\u2019t spare the coins.\u00a0 Apparently, no one asked if taxpayers were in better shape than their governments.\u00a0 Unlike laws allowing a state to tax income, in most cases there is no legal ability for states to withhold money to which they are not entitled.\u00a0 They just do it.\u00a0 Perhaps the Tea Party movement will adopt the slogan \u201cVictims of Lawful Plunder\u201d at an upcoming rally.\u00a0 It sure would help frame the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first time I read Frederic Bastiat\u2019s The Law (pdf), I thought the Frenchman was a bit over the top when he described taxation as legalized plunder.\u00a0 After all, the only things certain in life are death and taxes, right?\u00a0 Then again, at the time I was in school and not responsible for my income.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[950,952,105,951],"class_list":["post-4200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-frederic-bastiat","tag-plunder","tag-tax","tag-the-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4200"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4206,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions\/4206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}