Quote Originally Posted by Rollo View Post
I ask the question of who it's more ethical to extract taxation from - those who actually work for a living, or those who live off of the work of others?

In principle, all the income derived from dividends, interest and rent, all comes from the real work of people who actually do work. Despite what the financial sector would like to have us believe, their income comes about by the condensation of capital to the existing pile.
When bankers and financial institutions get paid millions and derive millions in profit, where did the actual work come from to derive that profit?
That's a pretty socialist, almost communist, point of view. The "actual work" was performed by the retirees during their working years. They then used part of their wages to invest in various things thereby providing capital to start new business or expand existing business. They now live partially on the results of that investment. Had they not invested there would have been less opportunity for business to start and/or expand resulting in fewer job opportunities for those following them.

Your argument would pretty much assure that no one would invest for the future if the government were to take substantial portions of it for taxes. I can't think of one government or society of any size which has been successful over any real time frame with that model - absent military force to keep people in line (North Korea).