(Please note that this is an article about the op-ed which is the post previous to this one–KSH).
The Archbishop of York has urged the Government to introduce a radical overhaul of the tax system and called for greed to be made as socially unacceptable as racism and homophobia.
Dr John Sentamu claimed many of the wealthiest in society are avoiding paying their dues in a stinging attack on the growing divide between Britain’s rich and poor.
Highlighting the growing gulf between the poorest sections of society and the nation’s uber-wealthy, Dr Sentamu also said those who have accumulated the biggest fortunes should not be included on the Queen’s Honours List.
If greed is a sin (and it is) envy is just as bad, and that’s what pronouncments like this pander to. Just because the uber-rich have resources beyond mine by orders of magnitude doesn’t bother me in the least. I might think their pay out of all proportion to their contribution, but that’s a matter for their paymasters, not me or the government. I am certainly against the government or anybody else deciding how much is too much for anyone to earn. Confiscatory taxes are an evil, the forced taking of one man’s money to give to another. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with tax avoidance. It is legal and in no way unethical. Tax evasion, on the other hand, is the failure to pay the legal tax rate one is subject too, and it is illegal. There are societal benefits from the mechanisms that make tax avoidance possible, otherwise, tax codes wouldn’t make provision for them. The archbishop is way off base.