Barry Goldwater, *The Conscience of a Conservative* — 7th session

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Barry Goldwater, *The Conscience of a Conservative* 6th Reading Group: Dandi, Mori

7. Taxes and Spending

In the 14th century, as the Yuan dynasty was challenged by the Ming dynasty and the powerful Kamakura shogunate in Japan lost its strength, ushering in the Sengoku period, the Goryeo dynasty, which had endured for 400 years, found itself buffeted by rapidly changing conditions in East Asia. Externally, it suffered from the Red Turbans in the north and Japanese pirates in the south. Internally, the greatest problem arose from contradictions in the tax system embedded in a regime that had lasted 400 years.

At the time, the gwajeon law was in force, under which land-use rights—that is, a fixed portion of the harvest—were borne as tax. Taxes from public land went to the state, while taxes from private land went to officials. As time passed, however, private land steadily increased, draining the state’s finances. Officials who lived on stipends from such private land continued to receive taxes, and even after the eligible recipients had changed over time, the people still had to keep bearing the tax burden for all the accumulated officials. Eventually, many chose the path of becoming slaves of their own accord, since that at least freed them from taxation.

Conservatism, which values individual liberty, sees that liberty as fundamentally realized through private property.

To violate private property is to violate individual liberty, and to violate individual liberty is to damage human dignity. That is the spirit of conservatism.

We may not feel it very keenly in daily life, but if you think carefully about the state’s power to withhold and take various taxes before our salaries even enter our bank accounts, it is terrifying.

The reason we pay taxes to such a state without much protest is that while it may seem better not to pay taxes and keep everything for ourselves, we could instead be plundered by stronger neighbors. So we pay the state as a means of being protected from those stronger neighbors.

Even taxes, which we pay as though they were only natural, must be levied and administered according to clear principles.

Taxpayers must not take lightly the fact that taxes are their own life and property.

Private property is liberty and human dignity.

If you work for 100 days and pay 10 percent in taxes, do not forget that you worked 10 of those days for the state.

As the collector, the state must not apply discriminatory and progressive tax laws in the name of realizing equality, and it must not infringe upon the people’s liberty and dignity through low taxes and fair tax rates.

---

Original title: 베리 골드워터 <보수주의자의 양심>-7차

Author: Jayujuui Ipmun Dokseo Toronmoim

Date: 2021-01-10

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=6&idx=23410