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Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman Biography

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“Tax relief through deductions is very precarious. It is a way for the government to let you keep a little cash without conceding that it is your money. Tax deductions can be taken away. . . "An income tax deduction is a matter of legislative grace," the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1943. In other words, all income belongs to the state. If it allows you to use some of it for purposes it chooses, be grateful. But don't think it is yours as a matter of right. That is where the Sixteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution has delivered us.”

LibertarianismIncome TaxPrivate Property16th AmendmentTax Deductions
Book:Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax
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“To appreciate how income taxation reduces prosperity form what it could be, imagine a 100 percent tax on incomes. We wouldn't expect much prosperity in such a society. People would have no incentive to earn money. They would devote resources to hiding the little they did earn. No investments would be made. No savings would exist to increase living standards. People's activities would be grossly influenced by the tax. If we lower the rate from 100 percent, the principle does not change. . . If you want less of something, tax it.”

LibertyEconomicsLibertarianRegulationIncome Tax
Book:Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax
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“Progressives did not like the antiquated thinking that saw the Constitution as a barrier to government expansion. The "living Constitution" was born. That benign-sounding phrase (coined later) was conjured up to justify changing the Constitution, without formal amendment, from a limit on power to a blank check. What was impermissible to the federal government by an earlier interpretation became permissible once the Constitution was construed as a evolving document. But by that philosophy, the Constitution is no limit on government power at all. A constitutional government that defines its own powers is a contradiction in terms.”

ConstitutionProgressivismConstitutional LawOriginalismLiving Document
Book:Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax
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“Perhaps the deterioration of American education is illustrated by the high correlation between the number of years a person has attended school and his inability to understand the words "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." It is more likely, though, that those who interpret the Second Amendment to preclude an individual right to own guns are driven by their political agenda. Whichever the case, they do themselves no credit when they tell us that a simple, elegant sentence means the opposite of what it clearly says.”

PeopleYearsMeanPersonsSchoolPoliticalPoliticsIndividualSimpleNumbersEducationCasesArmsBearsGunOppositesCreditSentencesDrivenAgendasAmendmentsElegantInabilitySecond AmendmentCorrelationDeteriorationPolitical AgendasAmerican Education
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“Why is Netanyahu pushing war? Among several reasons, demonizing Iran reduces pressure on Israel to negotiate seriously with the Palestinians. Many Israelis prefer building Jewish settlements on Palestinians' land instead. Moreover, Israel's rulers oppose any development-such as an Iranian-U.S. detente-that could diminish Israel's U.S.-financed hegemony in the region. War with Iran would be a catastrophe all around. Netanyahu and his hawkish American allies-the same people who gave us the disastrous Iraq war and ISIS-must be repudiated.”

PeopleWarReasonWould BeLandBuildingDevelopmentPressureIraqIsraelRegionsPushingIranAlliesRulersPalestinianCatastropheDiminishIsisIraq WarSettlementIranianHegemonyDetente
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“Those who create the wealth naturally want to keep it and devote it to their own purposes. Those who wish to expropriate it look for ever more-clever ways to acquire it without inciting resistance. One of those ways is the spreading of an elaborate ideology of statism, which teaches that the people are the state and that therefore they are only paying themselves when they pay taxes.”

PeopleWayWantLooksStatesPurposeWishWealthPayTeachTaxesCleverResistanceIdeologyAcquire
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“Anyone who believes in the natural and inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is obliged to accept that individuals have the right to buy and sell alcohol. That's why all the regulations that people take for granted-the restrictions on hours of operation, the ban on Sunday sales, the minimum distance from schools and churches, the minimum age, and the protection of local wineries from competition by wineries in other states-are illegitimate.”

PeopleBelieveStatesAgeSchoolIndividualHoursNaturalChurchLibertyAcceptingRightsSellsDistanceCompetitionProtectionAlcoholPursuitLocalsGrantedOperationsSundayRegulationMinimumObligedRestrictionPursuit Of HappinessBansInalienable RightsLife Liberty And The Pursuit Of HappinessRights To Life
Author:Sheldon Richman
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“We think of prices as simply the notation of how much we must pay for things. But the price system accomplishes far more than that. Hundreds of millions of people buying and selling, and abstaining from buying and selling, generate a system of signals - prices to producers and consumers about relative scarcities and demand. Through this system, consumers can convey to producers their subjective priorities and entrepreneurs can invest accordingly.”

PeopleThinkingPayMillionsDemandEntrepreneurAccomplishPrioritiesSellingProducersConsumersBuyingRelativeSignalsSubjectiveScarcityBuying And SellingAbstaining
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“Among other grand achievements, F. A. Hayek had a remarkable career pointing out the flaws in collectivism. One of his keenest insights was that, paradoxically, any collectivist system necessarily depends on one individual (or small group) to make key social and economic decisions. In contrast, a system based on individualism takes advantage of the aggregate, or 'collective,' information of the whole society; through his actions each participant contributes his own particular, if incomplete, knowledge-information that could never be tapped by the individual at the head of a collectivist state.”

IfsStatesWholeActionIndividualSocialDecisionCareersGroupsEconomicInformationParticularKeysDependsAchievementAdvantageInsightCollectivesRemarkableFlawsIndividualismContrastPointingIncompleteParticipantsCollectivismSmall GroupsHayekIncomplete Knowledge
Author:Sheldon Richman
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“Apologists for activist government never tire of telling us that the benevolent state is our protector and that without it wed be at the mercy of monsters. It is about time that we understood that the U.S. government does more to endanger the American people than any imagined monsters around the world…by pursuing its Grand Foreign Policy of meddling anywhere and everywhere.”

PeopleWorldDoeStatesGovernmentPolicyUnderstoodMercyMonstersAround The WorldActivistForeign PolicyTireBenevolentProtectorMeddling
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“The draft is a monstrous violation of individual liberty, and even a good motive cannot make it otherwise. In a free society no one should be compelled to take up arms, or be forced to kill or risk being killed... But who can blame prospective volunteers from doubting that there is a threat from Iraq? The Bush administration has yet to make a persuasive argument to that effect.”

ShouldIndividualLibertyDoubtRiskEffectsArmsArgumentBlameThreatIraqAdministrationMotiveVolunteerCompelledViolationMonstrousFree SocietyPersuasiveIndividual Liberty
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“Some conservatives are surprised to find people on the Left supporting the war in Afghanistan. It's not surprising at all...It is hard for the government to prosecute a war and not expand...Conservatives may think they can support war and oppose the expansion of the state, but that is like trying to square the circle. What makes them think they can contain the expansion?”

PeopleThinkingTryingMayWarHardStatesGovernmentLeftSupportCirclesSquaresAfghanistanSurprisingExpansion
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