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- Mar 3, 2010
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- Libertarian
Yes you are correct it is your opinion.
You are missing the democratic consent part of the argument. Taxes are not arbitrary impositions decreed by a faceless government, taxes are dues we pay in exchange for membership in a society and access to all the services it offers.
Saying taxation is theft is like saying if someone is found guilty of a crime and hauled off to jail is being kidnapped. Its ludicrous.
Taxes are paying back to society what you owe for the wealth you have generated on the resources it has used on you and for the insurance of that wealth you have gained.
There is only few arguments that I have seen by people that argue that taxes are not theft. There is the argument that there is only two sure things in life "death and taxes", which is kind of like saying the only sure things in life is death and getting robbed. That argument is more of a "it's just a fact life and therefore stop complaining about it" argument. Then there is the social contract argument, which states that taxes are part of the social contract and therefore we consented to be taxed. Then we have the good old taxes are voluntary argument, which of course ignores completely how they are collected and the punishment for not paying them. Finally, we have your argument that it is the due to society for the privilege of being a citizen and having access to services and that helped create your wealth. This argument is perhaps the most arrogant, and if wasn't for the taxes are voluntary argument, it would be dumbest as well. It relies on so many false premises that it is absolutely amazing they all fit in such a small argument. For one thing, society is a group of individuals with their own rights and there is no thing as people owing any sort of whatever to society. For another, this idea that somehow you owe payment for services that you never asked for is completely illogical. That would mean that if anyone does you any favors that you didn't ask for that it doesn't matter one way or the other if you consented to it being done, as now you owe them payment, as if some sort of exchange was ever agreed upon. Then you have the idiotic wealth argument that assumes that because I earn wealth that I owe wealth to other people. Of course, that is idiotic as my earning of wealth has no effect on your worthiness of my wealth. They are completely separate from each other.
Now that all that nonsense is out of the way, the only thing that needs to be said, is that when you take property from someone without them agreeing to that transaction you have taken part in theft.
No im not. I think the government should nationalize more.
Well, I would imagine we are getting there anyway..
Oh i forgot this wasnt a debate politics site :roll::lamo
What would you like to debate? How you are owed the vital services that keep you alive at other peoples dime? Is that it? Or perhaps how great of an idea it is for the organization that is the greatest killer and oppressor in all of human history to run your healthcare?
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