There seems to be a refrain in conservative and right wing circles that the government’s taxation on income somehow amounts to theft. That lower taxes will free up disposable income and stimulate the economy. What they fail to take in to account are the organs and apparatus by which the state shapes and supports an economy through its spending and provided infrastructure must continue to be funded in order for an economy to exist, and the deficit spending that often occurs when taxes are cut in order to maintain that infrastructure destabilizes the currency and increases inflationary pressure on its value. Overall, it is misguided and completely misses the point.
The real theft occurs whenever a company profits from your labor. Let’s say you are paid $10 an hour to make a product. You can assemble two in one hour, and materials in the product amount to $5 of imported goods. In total, the cost to manufacture the item is $15, and the item is sold on the market for $50. $70 of value has magically appeared out of thin air that the company now takes for one hour of labor, although you have created the product and therefore the value. Although this is a simplified example, it is in essence the labor theory of value.
Your employer does not labor. They only crunch the numbers to see how little they can pay you while charging the customer the most to line their own pockets. In essence this value they are pocketing actually belongs to you. Take it back.