I’m sure many of you have heard sayings like " Taxation is theft ". Well I’m here to tell you folks that it is true.
How many of you here are familiar with the mafia? You know how they are known for extortion? Let’s just imagine that the mafia goes around in professional, authoritarian, official uniforms like government officials. All clean cut and what not. Now instead of referring to them as the Mafia, lets call them government officials. If you don’t pay them their ‘share’ of money, then they will take your belongings and incarcerate you. But you say that they have no right to do so; it’s your money and belongings that you worked hard for. Guess what, folks - The mafia created a social-contract where you implicitly consent to the terms by merely staying in their territory. You don’t even need to know that this contract even exists, you agree to it implicitly regardless. And don’t worry, the mafia says that your ’ taxes’ will go to things that contribute to the community. Never mind that the mafia will use some of your money for their own violent agendas, just know that you are doing your part as a respectable citizen in contributing to the greater good of society.
Oh, and no worries, guys. The mafia doesn’t ‘force’ people to pay taxes. You can just leave the territory if you so desire. Remember, no one is forcing you to pay taxes or to be here. If you don’t like it - just leave! Oh, damn…bad news. I forgot that the mafia decided to go national…so even if you decide to leave your current location to not take part in the social contract, there will be other factions of the mafia in every part of the country that have social contracts where the people are obligated to pay taxes. Fortunately, for you there is still some glimmer of hope - you can just leave the country. Ah, fuck…I’m sorry to be the messenger of bad news…but it looks like you, actually, are pretty screwed. It seems like the Mafia decided to go global ( those cosmopolitan bastards!). Evidently, the mafia has set up shop in, essentially, every country in the world. Some countries are less taxing than others, but the social contract is still there. This may sound a bit extreme, but I believe there is still hope. You could just make your home in some isolated forest miles and miles away from any cities or towns. You could live a primitive lifestyle! God Damn it! The mafia- state has claimed all those isolated forests, so guess what? You sir, are officially fucked! Better just saddle up, partner. Remember: it’s for the greater good!
I’m sure many of you have heard sayings like "property is theft ". Well I’m here to tell you folks that it is true.
And then they proceed to give us arguments to prove their contention. And if you share the meaning of the words they use in their argument then property is theft.
Or taxation is theft if they share yours.
But there so many different contexts in which words like government and taxation and property can pop up it’s very unlikely that political philosophers will ever be able to pin down objectively what the role of government ought to be with respect to either one.
Look about the world and see which countries are countries worth living in and
which countries are shitholes and you will see that the countries that are
shitholes are the ones with little or no taxes and that the countries that
are worth living in US and almost anything in Europe, most of Asia have taxes
and there are no exceptions. Taxes are what make a country a civilized and worth living
in country. You want roads, you want schools, you want sanitation, you want a police and fire
department, you want and need taxes. In the US, the states that people are moving to and
want to live in have higher taxes then states people are bailing out of, people going to blue
states instead of red states and I point out mittens moved to a blue state and now lives
in LA or San Diego instead of some Red state as his arguments should have him living in.
Those who argue against taxes are really arguing against civilization. They don’t want
civilization and don’t want society to survive because a society must have taxes to survive.
Rome fell not because of the normal reasons you would think, but rome fell because it
couldn’t raise enough tax money to fund the state. Rome when it was the strongest
state in the world could raise enough money to keep the state functional. Remove taxes and
society, the state will collapse, just as it has collapsed in places like Africa and that is due to the lack
of money needed to keep the state functional. No taxes, no nice place to live in.
Taxation is not necessary for the construction of roads and all that other stuff you mentioned. If our society is, really, all about the ’ greater good’ and ’ humanity’, then people would voluntarily build roads and work together as opposed to allowing a bunch of governmental thugs to extort money from the people. I’d rather live an independent life somewhere less orderly than to live somewhere well-ordered but ruled by a bunch of thugs in kakis.
Let go of your absolutes. Taxation is theft but you have to do it anyway. The fact that you have to do it anyway doesn’t excuse it, the fact that it’s inexcusable doesn’t mean you can abolish it. Life just sucks sometimes, stop trying to fix everything. Same goes for private property. People can exploit it in all sorts of horrible ways, but you need it for our lives to be remotely human-seeming and to have any degree of liberty at all. A free society isn’t a good society, it’s a brutal society lots of times. The brutality doesn’t negate the freedom, and the freedom doesn’t excuse the brutality- again, life just sucks sometimes.
