ANCIENT WISDOM

Corruption is the impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle. It is associated with bribery, which is the inducement to acts against one's moral will for personal gain. No doubt you have looked upon the government and thought of corruption. It is unfortunate that moral integrity, and virtue are not taught or upheld on the same level as pleasure, instant gratification, or vice. Nearly everyone will respect a person who is consistently sticking to time honored principles, but in today's media, such a person is boring. People who abandon traditional values are lauded as brave individuals. People who practice free love are viewed as those with the most liberated minds. The end consequence of such actions are never portrayed.

It is easy to point out corruption in others, but much harder to identify corruption within yourself. What is your moral compass? What is the limit of actions you will take? Why do you view some things as evil or bad, while you view other things as being good? What is the source of that discernment? Many people are quick to dismiss the Bible as being old, outdated, archaic and perhaps even barbaric. Take the following examples from the Old Testament. Here are several verses or counsel that Judges and individuals were to follow in their judgments and relationships with other people.

"...Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it." Deut 1:16,17

"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour." Lev. 19:15

For people who consider themselves Christians, if you have respect of persons, you are not living your religion. Does society judge people to be inferior because of their educational status, or their income class? Do you give people of wealth, prestige, and power a pass, yet pounce on a person of more humble circumstances? Great evil creeps into a society that shows partiality to men. "The gospel calls for equity, justice and fairness in dealing with all. Favoritism and bias are not part of the divine standard."[1] Who thinks this is a bad idea? When people, or a government treats people with partiality, it opens the floodgates of corruption. Instead of providing equal justice under law, the government now administers law based on wealth, assets and income.

Take two human beings, Jones makes $20,000 a year, and Smith makes $200,000 a year. Jones would be required to pay $1,256 or 6.2% of his earnings as Federal Income Tax. Smith would be required to pay $48,928 or 24.46% of his earnings as Federal Income Tax. Both individuals have 24 hours a day to earn money, one just happens to make more than the other.

Setting aside the injustice of taking money earned by both of these people, there is further injustice that one is required to pay an even greater percentage of his earnings just because he happens to make more. This is the definition of the progressive income tax. The more you make the greater percentage you pay. If the flat tax was enacted, at a 10% rate, all people would contribute 10% of their income regardless of how much they made. While I am not an advocate of the flat tax, such a law in principle is more just than a progressive tax. It is important to remember the second plank of the Communist Manifesto is the progressive income tax. In other words, Marx's plan to destroy free market economies included this type of taxation. In other words, progressive income taxation is communistic. It supports the path to socialism and communism.

The government's corrupt policies of progressive income taxation, and disregard for the higher concept of impartiality, has created an envious nation of the United States. Instead of looking upon a person of wealth as a human being, they are considered despicable creatures that must have their property stolen from and distributed to the poor. The wealthy look upon the poor as nothing more than jackals eager to fight for a kill they have not earned. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. A true believer in that statement should shun all laws that do not treat all persons equally under the law.

[1] Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-1973], 3: 256.