Hi Kelly. I appreciate your reasoned response to my column. To be clear, I do not and did not oppose economic freedom, market competition, etc. I opposed applying the moral principle that “taxes are stealing” as a rule of government. I don’t think your points in any way contradict that position.

If we take a pragmatic approach to government and economics we can then debate whether this or that policy is a good or bad idea. I think that a useful objection to a proposed law is that it does more harm than good. I think that worthless objections are “It’s wrong to take my money and spend it on that program because it benefits those other people” and “It’s wrong to enact this law because it limits my personal freedom.”

Right and wrong are subjective, moral concepts which don’t produce good results or good policy.