Maule: Freedom, Independence, Taxation, and Service

Jim Maule (Villanova), Freedom, Independence, Taxation, and Service:

Today is Independence Day. … The United States is not a free country.

When I claim that it’s not a free country, I don’t mean that the United States is not an independent country. There is a huge difference between free and independent. Free means to be without cost. The United States was not created, nor has it been maintained, without cost. Many people have paid, in blood, in service, and in sacrifice, in order for this country to exist and to continue existing. It is misleading to use the phrase “it’s a free country” as some sort of blank check for unbridled behavior and willful refusal to contribute to the nation’s health and well-being. There are those who claim that because we live in a “free country,” they should be “free” to do what they want and “free” to refuse to pay taxes. …

Somewhere along the line the notion that the freedoms enjoyed in our independent nation need to be protected through the participatory service of citizenship was corrupted. Though a brave few continue to put their lives on the line, the proportion of Americans willing to pitch in has diminished, while the chorus of cries for self-centeredness has grown larger and louder. Once upon a time, when it was necessary to defend the nation’s freedoms, everyone pitched in, one way or another. Some served in the military, almost everyone was subjected to rationing, almost everyone paid taxes, many stepped up to perform volunteer services, and almost everyone bore the burden of lifestyle restrictions. Today, claims that letting the poor get poorer, the sick sicker, the unemployed more desperate, and the rich richer will strengthen the freedoms on which this independent, and expensive, nation has been built resonate among those whose ability to see beyond the horizon and into the future is weak or missing. Too many seek ways to avoid paying taxes, very few volunteer for military service, and too many turn their attention to how assets can be hidden off-shore.

Perhaps Independence Day should be a time not only to celebrate what was done several hundred years ago by people willing to pay the price, but also an occasion to examine the extent to which some people take freedom for granted, and others misunderstand what freedom means and what it requires. Freedom is not free. Independence is not free. Trend lines suggest that there may come a day, perhaps sooner than later, when not enough people will be willing to pay what needs to be paid for freedom. The cost in that event will be loss, not only of freedom, but of independence.

Tax Lawyer’s Blog, Pro-Tax True Believer Says Anti-Taxers Want Poor to get Poorer
Tax Update Blog, Misguided Nostalgia

About the Author

Paul Caron

Paul Caron was named Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of Pepperdine University School of Law on June 1, 2017. Dean Caron joined the Pepperdine faculty in 2013 after serving as the Dorothy and Leonard Straus Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law in the spring semesters of 2010 through 2013. He served as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development at Pepperdine in 2015-2017. Before coming to Pepperdine, he was Associate Dean of Faculty and Charles Hartsock Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

10 responses to “Maule: Freedom, Independence, Taxation, and Service”

Diane Fahey

July 4, 2011

Dear Jim,
Thank you for having the courage and integrity to post this. You certainly speak for me and express very eloquently my fears for our country.
Regards,
Diane Fahey

mike livingston

July 4, 2011

Very, very well put.

Todd

July 4, 2011

This statement was filled with noble rhetoric, standard-issue straw men (how many really advocate paying no taxes, except everyone’s favorite progressive company Google…) and the usual call for more redistribution of wealth (or spreading it around as El Presidente likes to say).
Our country was founded on the pursuit of happiness, and that means people should have the opportunity, but not necessarily the guaranteed outcome. We are not France, which was founded on liberty, equality and fraternity. We already have half the country paying no federal income tax in exchange for the benefits they receive from our government – many of us would argue that is a tipping point that may doom our great nation.
If you want to be a progressive redistributionist, that is your right. But don’t try to hijack the 4th of July.

F. Dietz

July 5, 2011

I agree with Mike Livingston. Only an idiot believes that “it is a free country” means you should not have to pay Federal Taxes. Taxes are necessary to fund the enumerated powers of the Federal government. The problem nowadays is that the Feds have overstepped their boundry and now take too much out of the economy – not to mention how inefficiently they spend our money.

Ben

July 5, 2011

First, the scofflaw Democrats have zero credibility. They haven’t submitted a budget in *years*.
Yes, poll after poll indicates that people believe that someone else should pay more taxes.
I don’t see why the vast majority of the people should spend < 5% of their working lives paying for their country while a handful are in virtual bondage, spending >50% of their working lives paying for other people’s liberty.
I don’t see why everyone needs to basically detail their lives to the state, just so that politicians can buy votes from interest groups.
I don’t see why the budget debate should be about 5% of the budget while massive unfunded entitlements have been portending our fiscal doom for 20 years. And the Democrats are still portraying any sane repair of these entitlements as “pushing Granny off the cliff.”
Did I mention the Democrats have not submitted a budget?
The Democrats strategy on taxes is purely political. They want to raise taxes on perceived Republican interests, solely so they can go to voters and claim that they hurt the oil companies, that they hurt Wall Street, that they hurt the people that their base envies and hates so much.
It’s the most disgusting kind of politics to be playing while the country faces economic ruin.

Publius Novus

July 5, 2011

This is one of those pithy commentaries that should be preserved and reprinted every year at the appropriate holiday–in this case Independence Day. It has the earmarks of “Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus.” I hope to see this one again (and again).

Woody

July 5, 2011

“Once upon a time, when it was necessary to defend the nation’s freedoms, everyone pitched in, one way or another.”
The last time was when “America’s greatest generation,” whose values the generations of the ’60s and beyond have rejected, had war declared against our nation by the Axis Powers, which were exterminating millions of people.
Today’s generations don’t ask for sacrifice to preserve freedom, but, like whiny children, *demand* sacrifice from others for personal wants that fall far short of the immediate seriousness of past threats, especially from the outside, and that they don’t want to earn on their own.
Volunteering should be just that — not submissions to demands from those who believe that their causes are more important than the opportunities and the time that belong to other people.
And, those professors who abuse their positions of authority to demand “service learning” may feel nobel in forcing students and others to comply with those demands, but they are going against the very principles of freedom and opportunity that form the foundation of our country and which we are to celebrate on Independence Day.
Fancy words, like in the article, don’t expose the real truth about what freedom really means. They are a disguise for taking away freedoms.