Freedhuman

FreedHuman]
Tax money IS obtained by force, in that a govt. demand to pay up is backed ultimately by the threat of using initial or offensive force. A tax is NOT a debt that one voluntarily contracts -- no more so than protection money demanded of a shopkeeper. To say that tax is voluntary based on voluntarily engaging in acts that are taxed -- is as silly as saying that protection payments are voluntary based on voluntarily selling stuff in the neighborhood where protection money is demanded. The ideas of taxation and protection rackets are really based on the false notion that some may take money by force instead of negotiating voluntary trades to earn it.
If some people get upset when I describe taxation that way -- too bad -- I'm just explaining the true nature of it.
Consider roads. Financing roads by charging tolls to users is morally superior to forcing gasoline dealers to pay taxes. The distinction is even clearer if you consider toll roads that are privately owned -- to use property that's not your own, you pay the fees charged by the owner(s).
We tolerate modest taxes because we understand that we need some essential services like police and courts, and we don't think there are "practical" ways to finance them other than forcing people to chip in.
But since we have reluctantly conceded to govt. the right to get revenue by force to finance necessary functions -- governments have abused that privilege terribly, BIG TIME. Governments have taken upon themselves numerous functions far beyond legitimate necessary functions, which gobble huge amounts of revenue, and have taken huge amounts by force to finance them. Some of those extraneous functions have been to enrich private parties and buy votes. Governments have also become financially irresponsible, through waste, inefficiency, and heavy debt. Even though governments extract huge amounts of revenue, their greed has been even greater.
It's long past time to rein in out-of-control governments.
First, we need to adopt the premise that a government is entitled to only enough revenue to perform its essential functions such as police and courts.
Second, we must stop all further expansions of government, and disallow any new programs. That rules out creating govt. health care and health insurance programs, for example.
Then, we should simultaneously phase out extraneous govt. programs and find ways to replace involuntary revenue with voluntary revenue. For example, some places of business might want more intense police patrolling and would voluntarily pay fees for it. Another example is the toll road example mentioned earlier. For yet another example, prisoners should earn their keep as much as possible, rather than lodging at taxpayers' expense. --- [the end] [ FreedHuman ] ----