Trying to get a straight answer on this issue is turning out to be impossible. I am going to try one more time.
You are sitting at a table, contemplating creating a fictional government. You are not at war, you have no budgetary needs, there are no starving children, welfare moms, bone thin elderly waiting on a social security check, uninsured sick, or anything of the sort. You are in a fictional world creating a fictional government. There are no rich, there are no poor, EVERYONE makes exactly the same amount of money. You ask yourself this question:
How much of my fictional citizen’s income do I think it is acceptable to take every year in the form of taxes. At what level of taxation would I say to myself, “X% is too much, it would be immoral to take that % from any individual.”
We’ll try this and see where we get.