I Just Didn't Know It

Arnold Kling, on the difference between donating directly to charity and paying taxes to a government which does charitable deeds:

From a libertarian perspective, your generosity is reflected in what you do with your own money, not in what you do with other people's money. If I give a lot of money to charity, then I am generous. If you give a smaller fraction of your money to charity, then you are less generous. But if you want to tax me in order to give my money to charity, that does not make you generous.

J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, or Bill Gates using their wealth to set up philanthropic foundations is praiseworthy. Warren Buffett calling for higher taxes on other wealthy persons is not. If Mr. Buffett thinks that paying for government services is the highest and best use for his money, then he is free to send a check to the Bureau of Public Debt. Not only would everyone respect his leadership by example, he could even claim a charitable contribution deduction on his tax return (although given Mr. Buffett’s inclination to pay more taxes he may not).

But back to Arnold Kling’s statement, perhaps I’m a libertarian and just didn’t know it. © 2009 Stephen Yuen