Nobody is stealing your money - you're paying taxes.
- wrong, income taxes are legalised theft of life, creativity, time on this planet. It is slavery imposed by the violence of the collective on behalf of those, who perceive it to be to their advantage, whether it is so or not and against those, who are in a minority. This is how income taxes started in USA in the first place, top 2% of people were forced to be paid up to 7% of their income in taxes so that the vast majority wouldn't have to pay alcohol and some import taxes anymore (of-course the result is that everybody pays insane amounts of taxes, both on income side and on consumption).
The rest of us will recognize your right to retain the rest of your property if you recognize your responsibility to help care for the indigent
- wrong, nobody has any responsibilities towards anybody unless they are your children, then you have responsibility to them.
If you don't do your part, then why should I recognize that you have any right to own property at all?
- because it is in your best interest to recognise that if I cannot own property, then neither can you.
That's what society used to be: very few people owned any property, everybody belonged to the select few, who had the so called 'birth right' to it. You couldn't earn property, you could only be born into it or be given it by somebody who was born into it.
Meritocracy is a much more fair system to everybody, except for those, who lost that birth right of-course.
But, call it theft if you like. It really doesn't change the fact that you have no choice but to comply.
- wrong. I do not comply, I use the 5 flag strategy to ensure that something like you has a very limited access to my property.
I imagine that you'd be a little less lofty in your views if you had one of those irresponsible parents. Heck, some kids don't have any parents/family at all.
- irrelevant.
The fact is that all the property/etc you've worked so hard to obtain is only yours as the result of you having been born to parents who raised you well, and who gave you genes that allow you to support yourself.
- parents, fine. That is none of anybody's business.
What you are born with physically is of nobody's business.
Absent either of those, and especially absent the latter, you'd be as well-off as an ape that shares 98% of your genetics.
- I am yet to see an ape that is forced to pay income taxes.
As a result, I certainly have no moral issues with requiring anybody with the ability to take care of themselves to spend some of their effort taking care of others, using force if they do not wish to do so.
- irrelevant what you have or have no moral issues with. I already know what your 'morality' is. Socialist/Marxis morality is violence and theft, nothing else. I have no qualms and no doubts about your level of 'morality' and thus I do what I can to avoid such as yourself.