What I owe to society is to not violate the individuals which make up that society. "Taxation" violates them, so by supporting it, I I would be supporting violating them. This would be wrong of me. There is nothing I want bad enough to believe it's OK to rob others to pay for it.
I have no problem with paying for what I use. I do have a BIG problem with not being allowed to choose among competing providers, and being forced to support a "provider" who uses the violence of government to collect the fees from me and others who may not want (or use) those services. That is wrong.
If a mugger promises to use some of the money he takes from you at gunpoint to feed an orphan, does that make his theft right? No. Besides, he takes a cut and denies the orphan some of the money.
The United States is not a club. I am surrounded by many clubs. None of them force me to be a member because of where my house sits, and forcibly extract "dues" from me. Clubs can overlap and compete. Governments, being criminal gangs, usually object to that civilized behavior. And, I would object to being an unwilling member of any club which used my membership fees to molest other people, supposedly on my behalf.
Government is unmitigated evil. There's simply no excuse for it. Your arguments in favor of it sound exactly like arguments made in favor of chattel slavery in the mid-1800s. Pathetic.
Indeed we loose freedom drop by drop. It all starts with: “yeah, taxation is not theft”. Then it will end up with slavery. I live in a country where the government owns the gold, the water, the sky, even the people. The government is so big that it is difficult to tell the difference between state and government.
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I think your first premise doesn't hold up.
Yes, we should prioritize individual freedoms. But, by definition, a society is asking every citizen to give up some level of individual freedom for the society to function. Specifically, we put limits on an individual's freedom that may hinder another individual's freedom. Eg We've agreed as a society that I can't be so loud and so drunk in public that I disturb others.
We then require a system to enforce compliance and some way to fund that system.
When I decide to express individual freedoms by screaming naked and drunk down the street, you are within your right to limit that freedom by calling the police.
And I think your final points flirt with hyperbole.
I understand your a very caring person and want to maximize individual freedom. I agree we should always strive to that whenever possible.
Anyway, have a wonderful memorial weekend!
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It is not hyperbole..., In my country people who make profit are punished if they don’t pay “rent” to the government, after all it owns everything. It is like a medieval monarchy. Concerning freedom just see what USA were and what it bacame, drop by drop citizens were loosing their freedom. All problems you raised are solved by vanishing public property. If I want to scream naked at my property who can say I can’t? Now tell me this, was government created to defend private property in the first place? Why it can’t ask for our contribution to such a defense? What’s wrong with voluntarism? Freedom doesn’t mean omnipotence, its limit is someone’s property.
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"When I decide to express individual freedoms by screaming naked and drunk down the street, you are within your right to limit that freedom by calling the police."
Why? Who are you violating? "Offense" isn't the same as being violated. But by calling the police I am lending a pretense of legitimacy to a gang financed by theft committed against the people they also violate in other ways. This is actually damaging life, liberty, and property.
Everything anyone does can "disturb" someone. That's why I follow the notion that if someone's life, liberty, or property hasn't been damaged, it is none of my business.
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