Tax is Theft
The idea of ? Taxation as theft is a viewpoint found in
various political philosophies. From this point of view, the government
violated property rights in enforcing compulsory taxes. Volunteers,
anarcho-capitalists, as well as objectivists and most minarchists see taxation
as a clear violation of the principle of non-aggression.
Murray Rothbard argued in The Ethics of Liberty in 1982 that
taxation is robbery and that tax resistance is therefore legitimate: "Just
as no one is morally obligated to answer a thief with sincerity when he asks
whether there are valuables in the house of someone, then no one can be morally
required to answer truly similar questions asked by the state, for example,
when filing income tax returns. "
Lysander Spooner, a nineteenth-century lawyer and political
philosopher who argued in his essay In The Treason: The Constitution of No
Authority that a so-called social contract can not be used to justify
government actions like taxation because the government will initiate force
against whom does not want to enter into such a contract.
No open, stated or responsible association, or body of men,
can say this to him; because there is no such association or body of men. If
someone states that there is such an association, let him prove, if he can, who
composes it. Let him produce, if he can, any open, written, or other authentic
contract, signed or accepted by such men; forming in an association; becoming
known as such to the world; naming him as his agent; and becoming individually,
or as an association, responsible for their acts, done by their authority.
Until all this can be shown, no one can say that in any legitimate sense there
is such an association; or that he is their agent; or that he has taken his
oath; or promised their faith to them.
In his Second Treaty of Government, John Locke assumes the
position that government authority comes from the consent of the governed, not
from the accidental birth of rulers. LK Samuels affirms in his "Rulers
Paradox" that, once citizenship is the holder of all rights, government
bodies gain authority to govern society through elections of government
officials. In this sense, Samuels maintains that citizens can only give the
rights they possess. The paradox of rulers comes into play when government
agencies exercise rights that citizens do not hold or can not handle. According
to Samuels: "If ordinary citizens could murder, steal, arrest, torture,
kidnap, and kidnap without charge, that authority could be transferred to the
government for its democratic arsenal of political arms." Taxation could
be seen as theft, for, according to the Lockean doctrine of natural rights,
government authority must obtain its citizenship rights.
Some economists argue that taxation is the distribution of
forced wealth very similar to theft and, like crime, has a large negative
impact on a country's GDP. Walter E. Williams, a professor of economics at
George Mason University, said that "government income redistribution
programs produce the same result as robbery." In fact, this is what a
thief does, he redistributes income. government and theft is primarily a matter
of legality. "
An experiment thought used to demonstrate the concept of
taxation as theft. The experiment uses a series of questions to put a
difference between criminal acts and majority rule. For example, a version
asks, "Is it theft if a man steals a car?" "What if a five-man
gang steals the car?" "What if a ten-man gang votes (allowing the
victim to vote too) to steal the car before stealing it?" "What if a
hundred men pick up the car and return the bike to the bike?" or "And
if two hundred men not only return the victim of a bicycle, but also buy a poor
person on a bicycle?" The experiment challenges an individual to determine
how large a group is needed before an individual "
Source: Wikipedia
Tax is Theft