Reply #70: I have some bad news for you

[progressive_realist]

All money is, in fact, the government's, not yours. You might observe that "United States of America", not "DangerDave921", is printed on every dollar you get.

All snarkiness aside, the government's rights to everything you supposedly own trump your own rights to those things. Governments' right to taxation (which all countries have, not just ours) allows them to tax at any rate they choose, even 100%. Eminent domain and other rights of the state allow them to seize any real property you "own". And these are among the oldest rights claimed by the state. Newer concepts like "the public good" allow governments even more intrusion into private "ownership" rights.

Private property is a myth. Nations are considered free with respect to how much their governments respect their own rules they have laid down, but ultimately the rules are made by and for the benefit of governments, and they have the power to change or ignore private property rules at will. Don't believe me? Declare that you and your little house in the suburbs are no longer part of the United States and instead belong to Russia, and see how that turns out for you.

Note that I am talking about how things are, not how they should be. How things should be is a whole separate discussion.

The standard property rights are the right of use, right of transfer (sale), right of disposal, and right of exclusion. The government grants you these rights for "your" money, defined as whatever money is left over after the government takes its share. But you have no legal rights of use, transfer, disposal, or exclusion for the money the government takes from you for its use. And you legally must pay those taxes. Therefore, there is no meaningful sense in which money the government assesses in taxes belongs to you.