Taxation according to Langland

William Langland's theory;

it is OK for a government to take money from
one of its citizens and give it to another of its citizens
even without the permission of the first.

dates to mid 1630s. link.

There is disagreement over the premise.

There is heated disagreement over how much
the government can take from one of its citizens,
to give to another.

The question of who gets to make the decision has not been fully decided.

Some would ignore the admonishment;

the beginning of the end of democracy
is when people discover that
they can vote themselves money,

and allow the poor to take as much as they want.

Some would allow the rich to decide, how much it is
they want to give.

Historically, the decision has run the gamut from the rich
keeping it all, to the poor, taking it all away from the rich
and then sharing it "fairly".

The lesson we learned was;
when you take everything from the rich and give fair shares
to the poordistribute it fairly
among the poor, it is not long before the quick and powerful
reclaim a more "natural" share.

Strong lions have a better day in general, than weak ones.

It is the way of nature; it is immutable.

The "let's take from the rich and give to the poor" argument needs a little fleshing out before we just start doing it willynilly, and according to the whim of a bunch of people who won't let us watch them doing it.