Where is Robin Hood?

Guest Post by Barbara Lunsford

Now that tax season is upon us, I would like to clarify a small but significant misconception about Robin Hood, the guy who “stole from the rich to give to the poor”.

Robin Hood did not steal from successful, creative, industrious, and thrifty citizens to give to the less fortunate.  He stole from the greedy and powerful Prince John (Congress) and his tax collectors (the IRS) to give money back to the citizens who were being drained financially by the prince’s heavy taxes.  And as a result, the prince had to increase taxes (plus penalties and interest) to pay for the ever-increasing need to enforce the tax laws as resistance and rebellion grew (tax evasion, cheating, non-reporting, poor record keeping, non-payment, late filing, etc.).

Prince John’s system didn’t work then and it isn’t working now.  It robs us of our incentives to be successful, creative, productive and thrifty.  It encourages laziness, cheating, fear and rebellion.

“The Communist Manifesto”, Tenet No. 2, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, calls explicitly for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax”.  Amendment XVI of the Constitution of the United States (1913) gave Congress the power “to lay and collect taxes on incomes, for whatever source derived….”

In 1950 a family of four paid only 2 percent federal income taxes.  In 2010 they paid almost 18 percent.  (Large corporations paid up to 39 percent.)  Would an increase of 2 percent to 18 percent in federal income taxes for a family of four in the last 60 years be considered a progressive and graduated income tax?

Don’t you know the authors of “The Communist Manifesto” would be very pleased to see that we have come to tolerate and embrace one of their major doctrines to expedite the conversion of a free-market nation to communism!

Where is Robin Hood?

Born in Big Spring, Texas, Barbara Lunsford has been a bean counter (accountant) for over forty years. She has one published book, Killer for Hire – The Final Chapter of the Alabama Twins Murder Case, a true crime case of judicial malpractice. She also has several blogs with one specifically devoted to all aspects of mystery crime at Mystery Crime Blog.