Render Unto Caesar: An Opposing View

September 19, 2008
by Evans Munyemesha

A very able and eminent Catholic authority, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, has recently released a book entitled Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life, where he labors (unsuccessfully, in my opinion) to demonstrate that taxation has a just and moral ground while at the same time professing the common belief that all men are endowed by God with equal dignity.

An attempt to supply an opposing point of view to the Archbishop's argument in the book by tracing the origin of taxation would be met by the sentinels of superstition and dark knowledge. And were we to be urged by some thinkers from whatever discipline that we really have an obligation to render to Caesar (where Caesar is the State), they would necessarily be committing themselves (as Archbishop Chaput does) to admitting that there too must exist such a thing as an equitable system of robbery, or 'Moral Principles of Confiscation!'

But as the principles and system upon which taxation is founded could be derived from nothing else but the viciousness and corruptions of humanity as is well instructed by volumes upon volumes of tragedies directly attributed to this evil practice, it is well to remind the readers of this new book that the Archbishop's argument is easily disposable. To do this, I will just briefly lay down four general reasons against Archbishop Chaput's argument for the justice and morality of taxation which he has founded on quicksand.

Firstly, of all the things that taxation is, the principal one is that it is an extension of the rather noxious belief that Caesar is indispensable to social order and growth, and the advancement of civilization. Were there any need to reinforce this fantastic belief of support for Caesar one has to first establish with facts that Caesar is needful. None has thus far shown it to be so. What we have been given are grossly wild speculations from ancient philosophers and superstitious public intellectuals. Our meticulous examination of what is termed Caesar is found to function against the course of progress, and is in constant violation of known valid principles

Secondly, having fully established from other studies that taxation is legal extortion; it is no trifling inference to remark that an illegitimate practice (which is what taxation is) could not bear legitimate fruits for illegitimacy could not beget legitimacy. It is folly to reason as many among us do that an illegitimate and unjust practice founded by our ignorant and primitive forefathers could somehow make itself legitimate and just.

Moreover, it is certain everywhere that taxation will inevitably give birth to an aggressive syndicate of tax gatherers. This is so because since producing wealth is always generally tedious and demanding on one's physical and mental faculties, this syndicate of tax gatherers will have little incentive for self-exertion. On the contrary, they will hone their skills in the harassment and intimidation and terrorization of those from whose wealth they could earn their sustenance without having to endure the tedium and demands of actual production of wealth.

Even if we admit for the sake of extending the argument that there could really be such a thing as a 'taxation grounded in morality' one question would still need to be answered: If a Caesar has the power to exact a certain portion of wealth from other men, even at the protest of the owners of the wealth to be exacted, from where does this power arise? There exists no just power that justifies the confiscation of another's wealth by Caesar.

The odd idea that an individual has an obligation to pay tax, and the complementary idea that this obligation if not attended to could be provoked by command; and that the provocation and enforceability of these commands extends even to those individuals who explicitly, and sometimes vigorously, object to the purposes for which the commanded tax will be applied, is what gives birth to the tax gatherer. Naturally, tax gathering foists on us some Caesar and an order of men, mad, unscrupulous and corrupt in their dealings with other men.

Thirdly, the idea that Caesar must subsist on taxes derived from all within his territory carries with it the implication that Caesar is not only to build and institute roads, public housing, police forces, agricultural businesses, schools, insurance companies, tax breaks, airports, health clinics, pollution control in the atmosphere---and do a hundred million other impossible tasks on our behalf; that is to say, Caesar has the ability to be everywhere at all times, to be all-knowing, and to be all-capable, further implying that he is a Demi-god of some sort.

But if Caesar were able to do all these tasks that it is expected of him to perform, and had all these all-encompassing attributes such as omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, then he should doubtless be able to furnish his own sustenance by producing his own wealth, just like private institutions ---banks, supermarkets, taco stands, bakeries, breweries, etc. --- do, without seeking recourse to political force. The failure, or rather, the impossibility, of Caesar generating just and honest income is a loud hint that we have a monstrous fiction in our midst.

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Fourthly, the idea that a tax is a 'compulsory contribution' involves the inevitable position that the powers between the tax contributor and the tax collector will be unequal, where the greater power will necessarily be on the side of the tax collector. This observation on unequal power needs no verification, it is everywhere evident. Now knowing that tax harvest is an essential part, from the point of view of Caesar, of the machinery of Caesar's Empire, composed of individuals with insatiable appetites for extravagant inventions, ceremony and ornament, as Caesar's Empire grows to meet the needs of these gargantuan appetites, the power of the tax collector must grow as well, and consequently tax rates.

The growth of the Empire with regard to the increase of tax rates will always be out of proportion as the relationship between them is arbitrary. For fear of quickly meeting the wrath of the discontented taxpayer, Caesar must become cunning, devious, and relentlessly unrepentant. This is easily demonstrated by trying to unravel any tax code. In this respect we have favors like taxes on prostitution, on food, on knowledge, on house views, on death, on waitress tips, and on income earned by babies doing commercials. The tax collector being in possession of effective power to tax, aided by the equally arbitrary decrees of the legislator, has limitless power over the tax contributor.

Taxes may initially and cautiously be pegged at 6-10% of total income or revenue but sooner than later, they are found to be somewhere between 35-40% and climbing. The inevitability of this upward course lies in the singular fact that where one has power over another's wealth or property, there exists no effective check against the voracious appetite of the former. The tax gatherer has a vested interest, not only in the collection of taxes, but also in its increase, in the accumulation and exercise of power, and in the security of his office.

And that the tax gatherer's wants could be acquired at the expense of another, keeping in mind that a life lived at someone else's expense is given to extravagance and immorality, there then appears the practice of changing laws on the side of the tax gatherer, to defining tax evasion as a crime, to arresting and convicting those owners who resist the advances of the tax gatherers and seizing and confiscating their property. Since tax gatherers absorb taxpayer resources and spend them on articles that cannot satisfy the preferences of the tax payer, it follows that the tax gatherer brings misery among those that are taxed. If the tax gatherer actually earned his keep through self-exertion and earnest work, and not through Caesar -sanctioned plunder, his appetite will be checked effectively by the limits of his abilities.

If it were agreed that a person need not have a say in the act of taking some portion of his wealth or property, which is in the practice of taxation, presuming it to have any place anywhere in any free society, there remains very little incentive or none at all for this person to continue producing anything more than for his immediate gratification. If there is a way the tax payer could subsist without producing anything, that prospect would be more attractive to him than producing wealth that would eventually be out of his control to dispose of as he pleases.

In summary, Archbishop Chaput's theory on taxation in his well-written but badly argued book has the greater temptation to taxpayers to emigrate to societies without such sick theories in practice, of engagement in underhand means of subsistence, e.g., becoming the leader of some political party or parish; of contemplating the rousing of sentiment against taxation in others just like the Americans of the Revolution against King George of England.

Taxation where the opinions of the owners of wealth or property are immaterial is taxation that will rapidly multiply corruption of general sentiment and debase the national character. There is dignity in earning one's livelihood by self-exertion by preying on the wealth of others using legal schemes and political scams. In this regard, the tax gatherer shows a disposition no different than that of an African hyena that subsists on the kill of other predators. Without the efforts of these other predators, like lion, leopard, or cheetah, the African hyena perishes.

In like manner, the tax gatherer, without the industry and resourcefulness of productive tax contributors, or other private efforts, would soon be food for maggots. But that is not all. The transfer of a portion of the national wealth from private individuals to other well-placed individuals and public institutions masquerading as Caesar is always a burden that saps the national energy.

Thus, the claim that Caesar is owed something by members of society is a claim without support.