Pray for Your Leaders

I’ve been thinking about taxes recently – probably because I have begun accumulating the necessary items to prepare my taxes for filing.

Ben Franklin, writing in Poor Richard’s Journal, said “the only certainties in life are death and taxes.” Okay, we all know it takes revenue to support government services. My question is, how much constitutes the “fair taxes” I keep reading about?

Work was part of the original creation. God worked – then rested on day seven. He assigned work to Adam because it was good for Adam. Work is good. Compensation must be fair. The danger comes when a government removes all incentives to work through excessive taxation. A person no longer finds work fulfilling and meaningful – the reward for his work go elsewhere, not to provide for his own needs or those of his family. When incentives for wealth creation are removed, revenues to the government actually decrease. They also decrease to charities. Plus individuals and their families suffer lower standards of living. It is not an accident that the most repressive, overly taxed societies are also societies that have a low standard of living. Who wants to work if he can not retain the fruit of his labor? The answer, of course, is “no one.”

Herbert London, President, The Hudson Institute, writes that “from the standpoint of government policy, there is not any difference between a tax of zero and a tax of 100 percent. On its face this seems counterintuitive. Yet a zero tax derives no revenue for the government, and a 100 percent tax rate results in disincentive for work, which consequently yields zero revenue for the government.”

Establishing tax rates becomes a balancing act – trying to achieve the proper balance between incentives for work and providing government services.

Karl Marx wrote, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” Unfortunately, this seems to be the goal of government, whether Communist or not. Progressive taxation, the current policy, is certain to doom our nation. As tax rates progressively increase, incentives for work progressively decrease. People are not interested in working to meet the needs of unknown others or of funding extravagance by elected officials. Reduced work effort and productivity mean that government revenues actually decline, as does giving to charities and standard of living.

The problem is that we do not understand the theology of work. In Genesis 2:15 the scripture says, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” There was but one person, one man – and he was to work the land for the benefit of himself and, later, his wife. There is a self interest in work. This is not wrong. Self interest is the greatest possible incentive. We provide for ourselves and our own because we desire to survive. This survival, life, we desire to experience as comfortably as possible. Resentment results when a person is forced to give the results of his labor to others. Especially is this true when the recipients work less diligently or do not work at all.

These thoughts lead me to this conclusion: the need to pray for government leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-3). Pray that government leaders are given wisdom to find the proper balance between incentives for work and providing government services.

Pray for your leaders.