Part 7: The perverse incentives of taxes

Eamonn Butler — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:20:34 GMT

Taxes on these things have the economically and morally debilitating effect of promoting idleness and indebtedness – which may explain some of our present predicament.

Part 6: Why taxation is dishonest and public spending is divisive

Eamonn Butler — Tue, 22 May 2012 08:14:14 GMT

Governments always want to spend more money than we would willingly pay. So they turn to ‘stealth’ taxes, in which the full burden of the tax is deliberately concealed.

Part 5: Why we so often believe tax is unjust

Eamonn Butler — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:25:52 GMT

As taxes rise, people are more likely to avoid or evade them. The Treasury responds to that by tightening the rules and raising penalties, but this extra coercion breeds even greater resentment, in a downward moral spiral.

Part 4: The self-interest of the authorities

Eamonn Butler — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:54:51 GMT

Part 4 of Dr. Butler's series on the (im)morality of taxation focuses on how it serves the self-interest of the authorities.

Part 3: Taxation undermines personal responsibility

Eamonn Butler — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:20:57 GMT

Taxes may convince people that they have no outstanding social obligations at all.

Taxation eclipses personal morality

Eamonn Butler — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:52:08 GMT

Taxation forces people to pay for things they disagree with, and indeed for things that they may oppose morally, at the deepest personal level.

The (im)morality of taxation

Eamonn Butler — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:47:56 GMT

Everyone knows the moral arguments for taxation.We hear the moral arguments against taxation much more rarely – yet these arguments are numerous and strong.