Update: When I first create this account I did not fully understand how the #Steemit tags worked or that what is posted cannot be edited. Now with this newfound knowledge I am reposting my article. Enjoy!
Taxation is theft. It is. All the taxes!
Many people will vote to increase taxation so they are voluntarily giving money to the state, however they are violating the rights of those who do not want to voluntarily give money to the state for whatever issue is deemed important that year. This is why. Taxation is theft.
There are many different types of taxation: Income tax, state and local taxes, payroll tax, unemployment tax, foreign tax, value-added tax, property tax (and eminent domain), real estate tax, sales tax, gas tax, excise taxes, user fees, sin taxes, capital gains tax, corporate tax, luxury taxes…… The government gets you coming, going, on the toilet, sleeping, and even when you die – inheritance and estate taxes. Remember each tax has laws and regulations with lots of exceptions and loopholes, well if you were smart enough to pay off politicians with lobbyists. If a law has a loophole then it is not efficient nor effective, so the law must be removed or fixed.
Property tax and eminent domain:
If you don’t pay your property taxes the government will show up and take your house and land away from you, which is stealing. No matter how many generations that your family has lived and maintained the property, if you do not pay those property taxes you will lose that property. How is that fair or even morally right? How is eminent domain morally acceptable by anyone? Theft of property which then the government uses money that is stolen from others, taxation, to fund corporations (cronyism capitalism vs capitalism) to renovate an area. The government causes problems not fixes them. Trump thinks eminent domain is “wonderful”. Do you agree with Trump?
When saying these magical words “taxation is theft” to those on the left or right it is like you are speaking in tongues claiming to be the voice of a god. The cognitive dissonance is strong in many who are not ready to let go of their statism. Many points that have been brought up supporting taxation are logical fallacies, like red herrings, conditional fallacies, questionable fallacies, or generalizations.
Tax, is a compulsory contribution to state and federal revenues. Compulsory is force. Contribution is a payment. So a tax is a forced payment for services you may or may not use. Rarely is something that is forced given willingly (Stockholm syndrome). Theft, is the taking of another person’s property without that person’s permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. Taxation is theft.
What is the difference if a criminal mob forces you to pay for a service or a government? One is voted on by the majority… Slavery was legal at one point because the majority agreed it was socially acceptable and determined that the minorities’ quality of life was sufficient as a slave…
Someone’s quality of life is determined by them and only them unless their mental capacity (age, illness, disability, etc.) does not allow them to do so, with exceptions. In these situations, another individual is granted a right to make those decisions for them. Examples include guardianship, conservatorship, power of attorney, and even parenthood.
Is it your right to tell a cancer patient that they cannot take cannabis because you think it could diminish their quality of life? No, that is not your choice, as it in no way affects you. You no more have the right to tell them they are required to take cannabis because it could save their life. You do not have a right to determine how somebody chooses to live or die.
Many people do vote those rights away or something such as cannabis would be legal for medicinal purposes in all states. “How is this possible?” you may be asking yourself. The government’s monopoly on force is how. Police and enforcement are paid through tax revenue. Tax revenue that you were voluntold had to be given from each paycheck, aka theft not voluntary. Being forced into a service or using a service is slavery.
Example: (how services and taxation are being misrepresented)
“You use the services that are paid for by taxes so being required to pay for something isn’t the same as being stolen from.”
That is a logical fallacy. Being required to pay for something, a service, which was provided isn’t the same as being taxed.
Now, how is taxing someone providing a service to that person? Do you use all of the services that are paid for by taxes? How is funding NATO, other countries, or unconstitutional wars providing a service to everyone? You can’t pick and choose what is acceptable to be taxed based on your standards of living or moral opinions. You are either for taxation or against it, or you are hypocritical in your line of thinking.
Who deems what services you must pay for or use as a necessity, Republican or Democrat supporters? People are so blinded by the word Democrat or Republican that they stop thinking. Just imagine Trump or Sanders supporters controlling your life… that is exactly who I want to make decisions over my life (sarcasm)…… They all want more democracy and greater federal government power which means less freedom.
Democracy is where the majority makes slaves out of the minority. Do you think we need more of that?
Let’s look at the differences between a service and a tax.
Situation: (I was given this as an example as to why we need taxes)
"You are driving down the road and you have a motor vehicle accident. You wake up in the hospital days later, injured but alive. The hospital then bills you for the services rendered."
This service, a potential lifesaving service, was provided to you therefore you would then be required to pay for that service. That is not a tax but a debt incurred which if not paid goes to collection agencies and negatively affects your credit scores. Still with me? Good.
Healthcare services
Hospital bills tend to be covered by health insurance, which is why there are insurance packages available. Because of government regulations insurance prices, with healthcare costs, have skyrocketed. Now there is a compulsory healthcare insurance provided by the federal government in which you are fined if you don’t pay for it. How is that providing a good service when some people don’t want it? That isn’t handing someone a hospital bill but stealing their money and providing a horrible service that may or may not get used. I know several people that either took the fine, because it was cheaper, or signed up for the service only to have to pay double to what was promised. Again taxes, which are stolen because they are compulsory, are used to pay for services many people don’t want or won’t be using. Taxation is theft.
Fire department and EMT services
Fire departments and EMTs only show up when you call them to provide a service. Property and other taxes go to pay for these services. What about all the other taxes that are collected throughout your day? Fire departments could be paid by home or renters insurance, which most have, after a service has been provided. How did they operate before the modern age? They are called enough that they could run like any other non-profit and make money from the services they provide and through community donations. Voluntary exchange is not stealing. Voluntary is an action from one’s own free will – not force.
Firefighters and EMTs costs continue to rise causing issues for all states. Some areas, to combat the funding issue, have started to create annual subscriptions for the services. This has led to firefighters watching a home burn to the ground due to the homeowner not paying the subscription fee. The homeowner knew the risks and chose not to pay for a service, the fault is on him. This is the same idea as having home, renters, or vehicle insurance. You pay a fee and you are provided a service, this should be voluntary not forced – nor be tied to property taxes. Taxation is theft.
Police services
Out of the several dozen times I have interacted with police throughout my life maybe three or four times I had called to be provided a service, the rest of the time I was provided fines and tickets for services I never received – if you know which services those fines and tickets went to please let me know – yes I know this is anecdotal but there are countless examples of police corruption and harassment of innocent civilians.
If police are never called to provide a service, and they stop and make an individual a criminal out of a victimless crime, then the police are harassing innocent people, those they are sworn to protect and serve. How is this providing an acceptable service? Imagine the police’s Yelp rating if it was running in a free market? Do you really trust police when they show up at a school or during an emergency?
Speeding tickets are another form of “revenue” generation, aka taxation. How is stealing money from you when there is no victim providing a good service to tax payers? Have you ever had to fight a ticket you knew was wrong only to have the judge side with you yet you still walk out of that courtroom paying those “processing fees” or “courtroom costs”? Add that to the amount of time you likely took away from your job and it may not even make monetary sense for you to fight for what you know is right. You may just pay the fine, cut your losses, and move on. You were essentially bullied out of your money by somebody with a badge and a gun on their hip. Who gave them that power? It’s no different than some thug on the street forcing you to pay because you walked on their side of the street a little fast.
Fining people for “crimes” when there is no victim is morally wrong. That would be called theft. If you disagree than any time you go even few miles over the speed limit you should turn yourself in and voluntarily pay your fine. Otherwise your line of thinking is hypocritical. Police should not harass, injure or murder innocent people, no matter their color or creed – all are targeted equally.
Police should provide a service only when necessary or when called upon. Turning mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters into criminals when you simply do not agree with their way of life is wrong. Your “taxes” (aka stolen money) helps to fund these “services”. Is it really worth it? When the government has a monopoly on force, how can you protect your rights? How is that freedom?
Look up Eric Garner. “I can’t breathe” would be the slogan that was chanted during protests. He was essentially killed for not paying taxes. His “crime” was selling cigarettes without tax stamps. Tax evasion. He was killed because he didn’t pay taxes. Who did the killing? Police. Was that the service he was paying taxes for?
How about having your house raided by U.S. Marshals because of an unpaid student loan decades old? Well that happened to Paul Aker. U.S. Marshals showed up to his house fully armed to arrest him for an unpaid loan… If they had done a no knock raid, which happens a lot and has gotten innocent people injured and killed – by police, great service – Aker could have ended up dead because a debt to the federal government. Now what would you call if it if a loan shark had injured or killed someone to collect a debt? Assault or murder, right? What is the difference? Because they belong to the government it is a “non” violation of a right? The word “government” should not be enough to make immoral actions moral especially when those actions violate the rights of others.
The cost to taxpayers for police misconduct is staggering as is the costs for police in general. Taxation is theft.
Note: The militarization of the police force started with the War on Drugs.
Prison services (thanks War on Drugs!)
The War on Drugs has made our prison systems horrible. Since the War on Drugs started in the early 1970’s the incarceration rate has exploded. This influx of individuals in to an already corrupt system has led to the creation of privatized prisons. The idea that privatized prisons would be cost effective have not come true. Now there is a system that pays for incarceration of individuals, to for-profit corporations, in which innocent people are having their rights violated. Thanks government!
Currently, the U.S. spends $51 billion annually on the failed War on Drugs and $39 billion on the prison system, let’s say $20 billion is directly caused by the War on Drugs – I’d wager it is higher though – that means $71 billion of tax payer money is wasted each year. Imagine if that money wasn’t stolen from everyone and there was more money being spent in the economy. When you are forced into a shitty cable service is it acceptable to you? Taxation is theft.
Note: Our current Vice President, Joe Biden, was one of the main forces behind the implementation of the War on Drugs.
Muh road services
This gem of a topic is always brought up as a gotcha question to anyone who disagrees with any form of taxation. “But what about the roads?”… Yes, what about those pesky roads. The majority of the time this questions is brought up by those who have not researched the situation, nor do they have any clue how to build a road. How were roads built before the heavy handed theft of our money? Voluntarily?
A video by the Corbett Report explains in detail how privatization of roads work and why we don’t need to tax everyone to pay for the roads that they do not use. Why is it your responsibility to pay for a road in a different state? Machines help build roads and sidewalks now making building roads easier. Free-market roads is a concept that works and reduces the government’s use of eminent domain. The real question is who would build the roads if not the government? Well, it would be you and the community around you. Everyone has the ability to build a road. The government is not a person, it is a social construct created by statism, and they do not build roads. The roads “built” by the government are actually contracted out to construction companies using stolen money. Where is the voluntary exchange for this service?
“But what about the interstate highways?” Yes, there is a solution for that as well. Low cost tolls. If you use the highway, it is a service provided to you since you did not create it yourself, and it is acceptable to pay a tolling fee for the services rendered and the maintenance of said services. How well have those services benefited the citizens of this country? How many complain about the highways being poorly planned and the inefficiency of their development? Road management cannot function centrally as seen by the failed federal highway program.
The federal highway program spends billions each year yet every year you hear at the federal level and state level that tax revenue has been rerouted to non-road projects. Do you agree with being forced to pay for roads even though that isn’t always the case? Taxation is theft.
Education services (K-12)
We are failing our children. We have let state run education dictate the future of our children’s lives. We have lost the understanding of the Trivium and Quadrivium and how they help us logically work through problems. Teachers are resigning over the poor state of our education system. Students are not being prepared properly for college or life after their state run education has been completed.
The problem is not that people are uneducated, the problem is that they are educated enough to believe what they have been taught and not enough to question what they have been taught.
Historically the education system was left up to the states and only when needed did the states seek help from the federal government. The federal mandated program of No Child Left Behind failed which has ruined the education system even faster than it had been going. Now 14 years later the product of that education system has hit voting age.
This is the exact time we need to take a step back, realize that we are on the precipice of the downfall of our economy, and logically and reasonably look at everything. One wrong move and we are screwed.
The Education Department supports roughly 56 million students and forced all states to conform to their policies for the past 14 years. Recently states have been given their rights back to the standards set in 1965 by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The involvement of the federal government, ESEA, and the No Child Left Behind has significantly increased the cost of education, with little show for it. Funding for education is provided by the local, state, and federal government. Is it fair that you are taxed multiple ways to pay for education services you or your children may or may not use? Do you agree when funding is rerouted to other programs?
With outrageous costs for education there are several options to lessen the cost. Focus more on localized education and stop with centralized. With the advancement of the Internet open-source peer-reviewed and FREE textbooks are available. With this change alone teachers could get a pay increase and school systems could still hire additional teachers. Taxation is theft.
High education services
Due to government involvement and federal loans college students are leaving college with huge amounts of debt thanks to the subsidies. Taxpayers are footing the bill for this system, hundreds of billions wasted a year, with no real solution to the problem. The government is the problem and lessening their control is the solution. Remember Federal Marshals will come after you if you do not pay your debt.
Let’s pretend for a minute that taxation is theft and we are slaves to the government. Now, how does it feel when you realize they are also the ones in control of our education? Remember during slavery the masters controlled the slaves’ education to keep them ignorant of freedom and rights. Giving you a pretty window to look out of doesn’t make you free.
Hopefully by now you have seen a pattern that government run programs are not run efficiently nor effectively. Taxation is theft.
Bernie Sanders (Trump would be as horrible but in a different way) – remember the road to hell is paved with good intentions (good intentions is loosely defined here).
Sanders will use this corrupt and unjust system and try to force socialist ideologies through it. To do this he will need to increase taxes, which will bring more theft of the product of your labor. The poor and middle class will be affected more than the “1%”. Never EVER has forced socialism worked out. It always fails. Forced socialism, because voluntary is acceptable, does not work and leads to communism, fascism, or totalitarianism.
Sanders does not understand economics, or the free market, but neither do his supporters (Trump supports are the same). Venezuela is in ruins because of socialist policies. Sanders threw his support behind Cuba’s Fidel Castro, who was a communist, same thing as forced socialism. People don’t flee on make shift boats to leave something that is great. They do that to get to something great, which was a somewhat free market and capitalism, but those days are waning because people are drinking that bandwagon kool-aid.
Conclusion
When you are forced into choosing a service and then forced into paying taxes for that service with no choice in the matter; that is slavery.
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Everything comes down to basic rights. You have the right to the product of your labor. No one else does unless it was voluntarily agreed upon within a contract before services were rendered. Do you have the right to steal from someone? No. Do you have the right to grant someone else the right to steal? No. How is voting to have the government steal from others who do not want to be stolen from not theft?
There is a serious problem facing our society. Words and their definitions have been lost on the majority of the populace thanks to government controlled education and media. Imagine how good this economy would be if you got the corrupt government out of it and focused on the free market, and voluntary exchange, and voluntaryism. Voluntary socialism is the utopia socialists wish for and strive for, they miss the voluntary part though, which is why it always fails. Force is wrong. |
Anarchism would provide the ability for voluntary socialism. Anarchism is the belief in the abolition of all government and to organize society based on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion as long as the rights of others are not violated. That is what it is means to be free. Freedom from force. Sanders wants slavery not freedom, and to achieve this slavery taxes will be raised across the board leading to more “criminals” being thrown in jail or murdered for victimless crimes.
P.S. Taxation is theft…
Source: Journalistic Revolution