This is sort of the elephant in the room. The only reason that you are given compensation for your work at all is because it theoretically motivates you to do

This is sort of the elephant in the room. The only reason that you are given compensation for your work at all is because it theoretically motivates you to do more of it. The "rewarding hard work as an ethical value proposition" thing really only crept up in the past century. While I think it is a good theory, treating it as essentially the only parameter to an ethical decision is extremely simplistic. You can argue for smaller government in ways that don't consist of counting dollars taken away from people at gunpoint. I find those sorts of argument much more compelling.