Hello all,
I have a few questions that I need answered regarding the nature of limited government and taxation in a free society.
So, I've heard Stef say that government taxation is by definition theft. It's hard to argue with him, but I do have a few criticisms that I'd like addressed by someone with a better grasp of political philosophy than I.
If you accept the argument that the only proper roles of a government are the police, the armed forces and the courts, then you accept implicitly that these branches of the government require funding in some form. Ergo, taxation of some kind is still necessary to fund them.
You might be tempted to claim that these services could be privatized in some form. For example, you could have a pay-per-use system for the police whenever they're called. However, in any pay-per-use system, there's the serious concern of a innate bias towards the party that's paying for the service. In short, if you privatize these roles of government, then their neutrality is compromised.