But why do you feel it is your right or the right of the government to take it from them? Because they happen to be more successful than you? I have never understood the logic of taking from the rich because they are rich. That always sparks the idea of true laziness in the person saying this.
That's kind of a weirdly confrontational tone to take.
If you already believe that "taxes are theft", then nothing I or anyone else can say will change your mind.
However, the fact is that you made your money in one of the most money-making-amenable contexts in the history of this planet, and that's not an accident, and it's not a coincidence. This nation has been investing in itself--and investing in you--since long before either of us were born, in order to provide the societal context that allowed you to exercise the full extent of your god-given abilities in order to make your fortune. That's why you didn't die of cholera when you were 3, it's why you didn't join the job market as a barefoot and illiterate 12-year-old, it's why you can commute to work each day secure in the knowledge that some dude isn't going to pull up in a Toyota Hilux, jack your Beemer and sell you into slavery.
To be a rich person in the United States and think "I made all this money, all by myself, because I'm some kind of genius Randian super-guy" is the pinnacle of deluded, parasitical vanity.
> That's kind of a weirdly confrontational tone to take.
Last sentence:
> To be a rich person in the United States and think "I made all this money, all by myself, because I'm some kind of genius Randian super-guy" is the pinnacle of deluded, parasitical vanity.