This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

When I hear proposals to tax rich people at higher and higher rates, I think: What right does the government have to money made by the hands of these men? The government didn't work for that money.

Those men didn't labor just to have their profits taken from them by force. Yet, if they legally use loopholes to funnel money into tax-exempt areas, they are deemed evil for withholding money from the people.

What I see are men who have worked hard for what they have achieved having their property looted from them by the government in the name of redistribution. This is the legal theft of a man's property in the name of moral duty.

When men lose the will to slave for their hard-earned money because it will just be looted, from whom will the government then redistribute wealth? What happens when men who are the creators, the men of greatness and ability, decide to strike?

We are witnessing the slow death of the will of men of ability. Why would I want to work hard to become wealthy and successful if what I work for is never truly mine?

Brenneck B. Clayton

Layton