I often hear from extreme libertarians that tax is somehow "theft". Theft is typically defined as people's property, money in this case, being taken away from them without their consent. Firstly, most people agree to pay taxes, they accept it as a fact of life and I haven't met many people who see it as a bad thing. Not to mention it isn't hardly something for nothing. Tax payers use roads, pavements, hospitals etc. all paid for by the government. Them paying a sum of their income is actually paying for the services and goods they utilize which are technically property of the government. To be honest not paying your tax is actually more fitting to theft as you are basically stealing their services and goods with no intent of paying. So, if there is a libertarian out there, please argue against the points I just made.
Because if you don't pay the taxes, the IRS will chase you down and coerce it from you. When you aren't given a choice it becomes theft. EDIT: Specifically the income tax.
I don't consent to taxation. It is still levied on me. Therefore, under your definition, taxation is theft. The income tax was introduced in 1913. Before that, we had fully functioning roads, hospitals, and schools. There's nothing that can't be achieved by a market economy that isn't provided by government. Besides mass warfare perhaps. I could get more into this, however this is along the lines of what most libertarians will tell you.
Just because some agree to get their wealth stolen does not conclude to taxation not being theft. Majority opinion does not make it moral. If a few slaves enjoy their master and their slave work, compared to other masters they hear about, doesnt make them any less of a slave. Because a slave master gives his slave food and tools (paid by his own work) to make his work easier (roads, serivces) You act as if these services justify theft. It never can and never will. These can be done voluntarily without propping up a group of people who claim the right to collect taxes somehow without any signature on my part.
To put it simply, we view it as an act of coercion. You either pay the tax at gun point (metaphorically speaking) or you get locked up in a cage, no if's and's or but's. That's how we view it as theft.
0% of the Federal income Tax goes to any of the things you listed. It is all applied to the interest of the debt according to a report done by the Reagan admin. I have it in some other post but im too lazy to look it up. If you truly care you will research it yourself.
In a 'private' system, what would happen to you if you didn't pay for the things you used and/or benefited from?
You either get sued or your credit score goes bad You certainly wouldn't be shot or kidnapped from your home and thrown in a rape cage.
It's not true that "most people" willingly pay taxes. Give most people the option of either paying taxes or not paying any and see what most people choose. Ask most people if they would rather pay ever higher prices for food and energy, or would they rather prices go down. People are forced to pay higher prices for these things because of government counterfeiting the money supply. The inflation tax is even worse than the income tax since it falls hardest on the poor, and it's done secretly, under the extremely euphemistic cause of "preventing deflation", or "injecting liquidity", or whatever other bullshit name the state gives its acts of thievery.
I have never agreed to pay taxes. Without government, I'd still have those things. Also, if they were "paid for by government", where did government get its money? Whatever you allow to be stolen from you is horribly mismanaged and only a small fraction actually ends up where it should, if any. For example, $1 in taxes collected for "welfare" - 70% goes to a bureaucrat, 30% to the "poor." Who doesn't love YouTube videos? [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxRSkM8C8z4]The Tale of the Slave - Robert Nozick - YouTube[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJIMqwJI2uI]The Philosophy of Liberty: Plunder - YouTube[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A]The Story of Your Enslavement - YouTube[/ame] I'd ask you: HOW ISN'T TAX THEFT?
Or you no longer have the service provided for you. If you don't pay your internet bill you don't have internet access. Seems simple.
Anyone want to tell me how we built the pyramids? Ends do not justify the means unless you want to defend slavery?
You're certain of this? Based on what? Men have been putting men in cages for as long as man has existed, but yet you blame this phenomenon on 'the government'.
We, as in you and I, are able to use the internet due to commercialization via private enterprise. Nice try though. If not for that, we wouldn't be here talking about it.
Well in a few areas of this country, if you don't pay your "FIRE PROTECTION TAX" they will arrive and watch your home burn to the ground!
Let's, for the sake of argument, say that the state is the only one who can build infrastructure and provide certain services. f you came up and robbed me of my money at gun point and then gave me a loaf of bread that would still be theft. You are taking my property, my money, against my will by force and providing me with something that I could use but never asked for to begin with. If what you say is true, which is isn't, about most people accepting taxation with a smile, it is still theft to take by force money from those who do not willingly agree to be taxed. The services provided do not make it any thing other than extortion.
have you ever had Visa bust down your door and throw you in a cage for not paying a credit card bill? Governments have the monopoly over violence in an area. In an anarchic world there will still be rapes, murders and kidnapping humans are not and will never be perfect, but the mass violence of the state will be over. The gulags and the concentration camps and the massive armies funded through theft will be gone.