day no. 15,419: property rights and wrongs

I read this today (2/26/20) on Blog & Mablog,

"When the seventh commandment prohibits adultery (Ex. 20:14)), what is presupposed in the restriction? Well, the institution of marriage is presupposed. Because there is such a thing as another man’s wife, or another woman’s husband, the crime of adultery becomes a possibility. If there were no marriage, there could be no adultery. The prohibition presupposes the institution of marriage, and obviously exists in order to protect that institution.

So in a similar way, when the eighth commandment prohibits theft (Ex. 20:15)), what is presupposed there ? I will tell you. The institution of private property is presupposed. The institution of private property is being honored. The prohibition presupposes the institution of private property, and it obviously exists in order to protect that institution.

Property rights are human rights... The reason why socialist governments have such an untrammeled record of abusing human beings is that they begin the entire process by denying one of the foundation stones of human rights, which is property. Pure and simple, without a deep respect for property that the government cannot touch, human rights declarations are nothing more than the flattering words that turkey farmers offer to the turkeys in the run up to Thanksgiving.

But I should anticipate one obvious question. Since the Scriptures do have a category of legitimate taxation (Rom. 13: 6-7), and because a government can obviously steal, where is the dividing line between the two? When does legitimate taxation become theft? The answer I would offer is this. When the government uses its powers of taxation in an attempt to rival or surpass God’s financial claim on us (which is the tithe), the government is abusing its authority to tax. (1 Sam. 8:15) But the fact is that most of us think that getting taxation back down to 10 percent seems like a libertarian opium dream. This just shows us just how far gone we are in our idolatrous statism." -- Douglas Wilson, 3 Reasons Why Socialism Should Not Be Considered As The Butterfly's Boots

Property rights are the assumed principle behind God's command that thou shall not steal. And the thou in question is anyone looking to take someone else's property without their permission. Citizens grant their government permission to exact taxes from them. It is the cost of obtaining the benefit of being somewhere. But the qualification here is that anything more than 10% presumes an exaction that rivals that of God. In total, a person should have no more than 10% of their income exacted by their government. If the government wants more of your money, they should cheer for your success so that the size of your pie increases so that their 10% slice grows as you prosper. The Christian then would give 10% of their income to their local church leaving them a total of 80% of their earned income to meet their needs not provided for by the benefit of being a citizen of a nation and a member of a local church.