I love it when this happens. The Wall Street Journal frequently runs pieces by proponents of big government (unlike leftist papers such as the New York Times, which features pieces not by libertarians but centrists like David Brooks for “balance”) but then publishes rebuttal letters that smash the writer. If you enjoy that as much as I do, take a look at this:

If James Stewart is puzzled why anyone in the U.S. needs a Swiss bank account (?Offshore Tax Evaders Deserve No Sympathy,? Common Sense, July 15), we must be living in different worlds. Banks in the U.S. are required to spy on their customers and report certain transactions to the government without informing their clients. That?s confidentiality? Presumably his contention that ours is a strong banking system is a joke.

Underlying Mr. Stewart?s column is the assertion that rich people ?owe their prosperity to this country,? with the assumption that, therefore, their money actually belongs to the government. On the contrary, people become rich by hard work, intelligence and some good fortune. The fruits of their labor belong to them, not to Mr. Stewart, nor to me, or anyone else.

When the state contrives to steal more than 50% of one?s income (including state income, Social Security and other taxes) and threatens to take more (5.4% surcharge to pay for a new government medical system), giving hardly anything in return, then, yes, I can sympathize with those who say ?enough.?

It is a herring of the deepest red to mention Bernard Madoff; to equate people who try to protect their own money with one who stole money from others is a false analogy.

Adrian Day

Mr. Stewart indicates that the rich avoid their civic duties by hiding wealth in offshore jurisdictions and that the U.S. should take the moral high ground. He is wrong.

If consumers choose to pay 50 cents for a carton of milk instead of spending $5 for an identical carton, they are considered smart. Yet when the same logic is applied to taxes, smart consumers become criminals.

The U.S. should stop pointing fingers at nations with more efficient tax regimes. Increasing tax compliance shouldn?t be accomplished through eliminating financial privacy laws of sovereign nations, but rather through creating more attractive tax policies.

Hiwa Alaghebandian