no third solution » Taxation is Theft
Property Taxes are NOT “Rent”
When challenging the maxim that Taxation is Theft, some people like to make an analogous argument: “Think of it as rent,” they say. (I saw this on a reddit discussion about one of my posts.) OK, let’s think of it as rent A non-negotiable rent. Backed by the “social contract, so-called, a complete fiction which no man ever accepted because it was never lawfully offered, and one which may at any moment be unilaterally altered by the Landlord, who may reduce the quality of the services, add more services for which the tenant hasn’t asked (yet for which he still has to pay), may raise the rent, may reclaim the property, may evict the tenants on a lark, etc. That’s not the sort of rental agreement that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Government is Slavery, Taxation is Theft
Public Goods Do Not Justify Taxes
A lot of people want to make an argument in favor of government or in particular, in favor of taxation, on the basis of public goods. Public goods, you might recall, are non-rival, non-exclusive goods, the production of which benefits everyone, but since the benefits cannot be excluded, many people presume that such goods will be underprovided in a free market. Typically, what they mean is that these goods may be provided in a smaller quantity than they’d prefer. For the casual reader, an example of public goods are parks and roads. Without resorting to a childish absurdum (i.e., but my garden is a public good for my neighbors…), we can see some problems with the public goods foundation, from the get-go. Private roads exist in probably every … Read entire article »
Filed under: Anarchy!, Taxation is Theft