And even if that weren't the case, it's still not democratic to let people individually decide who gets what dollar. We build states so that we can direct their action through democratic means, using our votes. That's the best way
That's not a realistic position to take, no society works on that principle. The state always levies taxes (ok, Somalia may be excepted here) and the state always does the allocation of that money.
Use their wealth to accumulate more wealth through political connections. Use their wealth to disenfranchise others. Use it to harm others. How many forms of abuse are there and what would it take to enumerate them all?
" - $73.34 billion in tax revenue was lost to the public in 2022 due to personal and corporate charitable deductions.
- If we include just the little data we have about charitable bequests and the investments of charities themselves, the revenue loss is pushed up to roughly $111 billion.
- And if we also include the capital gains revenue lost from the donation of appreciated assets, the true revenue costs of charity likely add up to several hundreds of billions of dollars each year."
