Wow thoughtful post and great title.
I also agree that tax is not theft. Everyone enjoys the benefit of public works, the military and civil service. If it were optional to pay for this we'd have tons of freeloaders and we would all suffer.
It's all about balance though. If there is too much taxation or redistribution then the whole economy breaks down and that's shit for everyone.
“Balance” is the arbitrary root of all the evil we’ve let government get away with. You don’t think we have tons a freeloaders in the current system? If freeloading is your big concern, then what’s wrong with having competing private organizations sending a bill to those they serve? Regional border defense would just be handled by or contributed from your local security provider. It’s in their long term economic interest to defend against other security providers unjustly taking their property and patronage. They would pass that cost onto those they served, and most would use that service because who really wants to fend off home invaders or have their shit stolen? Fire departments could be paid by insurance companies. Do you think you’d be able to freeload on your neighbors insurance? Maybe to some extent you’d be able to get by for a period of time, but your neighborhood would eventually burn down and many hard lessons would be learned after a while.
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