proteinshake wrote:Dr.Degrees_Cr.Cash wrote:Would love to hear if any of you guys believe taxation is theft. Have never heard a reasonable support for that
good article on it by one of my favorite philosophers
https://www.cato-unbound.org/2013/03/04 ... -authoritythe book is also fantastic
The "strangers on an island" analogy, or any variation on it is not moving to me. For one to support it we would have to move into full on an-cap realm, which almost no one wants to. As long as we both agree there is a need for a collective keeper of the peace, maker of laws, and defender of borders then I have the acceptance of enough authority for taxation to be permissible.
Governments are agreed upon by the people, in every situation, a government that does not have the support of its citizenry (in a broad sense) will not survive. They obviously remain for varying amounts of time but eventually they will topple.
However, governments as a construct are (in my opinion) necessary, given a world with no rules and no laws we would naturally search to seek groups for defense and those groups would have rules, those groups would provide a service to those individuals and would therefor require recompense. I see no reason to compel recompense in that instance as it would be extremely difficult to receive payment as the service was performed and after all, anyone who disagrees could in theory leave the safety of the services. Furthermore, these groups are sovereign as there is no other higher claim to the land they oversee (a right given to them by those being overseen) and they could therefore enact any rules they see fit, compelling payment for services seems one of the least oppressive.
Look, I don't expect the social contract argument as it's spelled out here to be any more moving than your original argument, but the fact is governments are sovereign rulers and the agreement to claim the land they oversee is long standing and their sovereignty has been confirmed through many conflicts over said land. Anyone that disagrees with the payment compelled to them is free to leave and even attempt to lay sovereign claim themselves. As long as that doesn't happen the State may pass any laws to outlaw or compel any behavior they see fit, that includes taxation.
I understand hating taxes, I just don't see a salient argument for their classification as "theft"