“Absolute justice demands that mens incomes and rewards should ... vary, and that some have more than others-so long as human justice is upheld by the provision of equal opportunity for all.” ShouldHumansLongOpportunityJusticeDemandEqualAbsolutesRewardsIncomeProvisionVaryEqual Opportunity Author:Sayyid Qutb
“However accurate or inaccurate the agency's numbers may be, tax law explicitly presumes that the IRS is always right -- and implicitly presumes that the taxpayer is always wrong -- in any dispute with the government. In many cases, the IRS introduces no evidence whatsoever of its charges; it merely asserts that a taxpayer had a certain amount of unreported income and therefore owes a proportionate amount in taxes, plus interest and penalties.” MayGovernmentLawCertainInterestJusticeNumbersCasesAmountTaxesEvidenceIncomeAgencyPlusAccurateIntroducingPenaltiesDisputesTaxpayersIrsAlways Wrong Author:James Bovard
“Unlike proportionality, progression provides no principle which tells us what the relative burden of different persons ought to be the argument based on the presumed justice of progression provides no limitation, as has often been admitted by its supporters, before all incomes above a certain figure are confiscated, and those below left untaxed.” PersonsDifferentCertainLeftJusticePrinciplesFiguresOughtArgumentBurdenIncomeLimitationRelativeSupporterProgressionProportionality Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“I do not mean to impugn the social justice and social expediency of the redistribution of incomes aimed at by N.I.R.A. and by the various schemes for agricultural restriction. The latter, in particular, I should strongly support in principle. But too much emphasis on the remedial value of a higher price-level as an object in itself may lead to serious misapprehension as to the part which prices can play in the technique of recovery. The stimulation of output by increasing aggregate purchasing power is the right way to get prices up; and not the other way round.” WayShouldMayMeanPlayValuesSocialJusticeLevelsPrinciplesSupportToo MuchObjectsParticularSeriousHigherSocial JusticeRoundsInvestingVariousTechniqueIncomeRecoveryLatterSchemesRight WayEmphasisRestrictionOutputStimulationPurchasingExpediencyPurchasing Power Author:John Maynard Keynes
“In The Federalist, James Madison called the rage for equality 'a wicked project.' People differ and rewards differ-that's the essence of both liberty and justice. No nation that rewards effort, talent, inventiveness and luck can even pretend to cherish equal outcomes. In an inventive and dynamic society, equal (even relatively equal) incomes can be achieved only by abandoning liberty for tyranny.” PeopleNationsJusticeEffortLibertyTalentEqualProjectsEssenceLuckRewardsRageTyrannyIncomeOutcomesWickedCherishMadisonFederalistLiberty And JusticeInventiveness Author:Michael Novak
“Accounting incomes were reduced by discrepancy [ but] "the net amount paid by lawyers for lawyerly discrepancy is close to zippo. In this case, the goddess of justice was blind.” JusticeCasesAmountPaidBlindLawyerIncomeGoddessAccountingDiscrepancies Author:Charlie Munger