Should only taxpayers be allowed to vote?
When Socrates and his friends were talking of voters, they were talking of land owners. In todays terms, that means, ---- taxpayer. The core of democracy.
There are two types of citizens. The taxpayer and the taxtaker.
Once the taxpayer hands over his wealth, he loses control of where it is spent.
This is counter to the taxpayers wishes.
Why do taxpayers allow this situation and defer their right to spend their wealth to others?
If taxtakers had done a good job with that wealth, I do not think any would complain. That is not the case.
Should those who pay the way of our society be the ones who decide where our wealth is spent?
Since the right to do so is tied to our vote, should only taxpayers be allowed to vote on spending issues?
Regards
DL
The argument of whether or not non-property owners or non-taxpayers should be allowed to vote is as old as our Republic.
The Founders ultimately decided that since society eventually causes an imbalance of property, and therefore creates a world that violates natural rights, that preventing non-property owners/non-taxpayers from voting would be adding insult to injury.
In this letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, we find Jefferson arguing that our country needs to exempt a portion of the country from taxes.
He makes this argument because:
Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right.
Clearly, those who suffer from that violation of natural right should not be also prevented from the inalienable right to vote.
Rather than finding ways to **** over the poor even more, we should be finding ways to restore balance to the natural order of things and diminishing the concentrationg of wealth "in a very few hands".
Read the letter. It will open your eyes.