Letter to the editor: You say that if the government were to confiscate a portion of the wages of convicted burglars when they reenter the workforce, it would be a form of stealing, hence an abuse of power. Yet under the proposal now being considered, the government would confiscate such wages in order to fund an account to compensate burglary victims. So even if confiscating a portion of burglars' wages were a form of stealing, it would still be justified.
The principle that 'the motive prompting an action determines whether or not that action is justified' most helps to support the argument in the letter to the editor.