Calvin Coolidge: Taxes Legalized Robbery

Calvin Coolidge Money Quote saying allowing government to take more taxes than required is like legally robbing citizens. Calvin Coolidge said:
 

 

“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery” — Calvin Coolidge

In this quote, Calvin Coolidge is criticizing excessive taxation by the government. He argues that when governments collect substantially more in taxes than what is truly needed to fund essential services and functions, it amounts to a form of “legalized robbery” from citizens.

Coolidge implies that while some level of taxation is justified and necessary to support functions like national defense, infrastructure, healthcare etc., levying much higher taxes than actually required oversteps legitimate bounds. When tax rates and amounts collected far surpass what is reasonably needed, it deprives people and businesses of wealth that rightfully belongs to them.

The quote conveys Coolidge’s view that taxation should be kept to a minimum and only fund core public interests. Any tax revenue beyond that minimum could be seen as an illegitimate seizure of private resources. Overall, Coolidge portrays very high taxation as a legal but still improper taking of citizens’ money by the state for non-essential purposes.

Birthday: July 4, 1872 – Death: January 5, 1933

Nicholas Kristof: Circumvention

Nicholas Kristof Money Quotation saying financial institutions are finding ways to circumvent the free market, but only when it benefits capital creation. Nicholas Kristof said:
 

 

“The banks have gotten away with privatizing profits and socializing risks, and that’s just another form of bank robbery” — Nicholas Kristof

The quote “The banks have gotten away with privatizing profits and socializing risks, and that’s just another form of bank robbery” by Nicholas Kristof is criticizing the common practice of large financial institutions reaping massive rewards during economic booms by taking on debt and risky bets, but then offloading potential losses onto taxpayers when those gambles go bust through government bailouts.

Kristof argues this amounts to a transfer of wealth from the public to the banks, since taxpayers are on the hook for covering losses that benefit private shareholders and executives when risks materialize into crisis.

By “privatizing profits” yet having governments “socialize” or share the costs of failures, banks get to keep profits while the public shoulders the downside burden according to Kristof. He portrays this as an unfair system that enriches banks at the expense of citizens, making it a kind of “bank robbery” of public funds.

Vanya Cohen: Robbery & Taxation Thieves

Vanya Cohen Money Quotation saying the entire federal government constitutes a frightening hoard standing at the ready to collect from all income. Vanya Cohen said:
 

 

“When there’s a single thief, it’s robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it’s taxation” — Vanya Cohen

Vanya Cohen seems to be drawing a distinction between individual criminal acts versus widespread, institutionalized confiscation of wealth by the state.

The quote suggests that a single bad actor stealing (“a single thief”) is rightly called “robbery,” while a large group in positions of power doing the same thing through legislation and enforcement (“a thousand thieves”) is euphemistically termed “taxation.”

Cohen appears to be implying that the end result – taking money and property from citizens against their will – is similar regardless of scale or legality.

So in essence, the message seems to be that what constitutes “theft” may depend more on who is doing the taking rather than the nature of the act itself.