the scenario you describe is a VOLUNTARY one. Someone owns something that you want to use. You decide whether or not it is worth the cost, and if it is, you make a mutually beneficial exchange with the owner.
The owner benefits by receiving the payment they were asking, and you benefit through the ability to use the property under the agreed upon terms. We know this is mutually beneficial because both parties chose to make the exchange voluntarily. There was no coercion involved. No guns, no IRS, etc.
Taxes on the other hand are NOT voluntary. You don't have a choice. You either pay up, and fund the entire swath of "services" (war, torture, assassination, nation building, drones, sanctions, drug wars, corporate welfare, etc.) or you are stripped of your ability to make voluntary transactions with other consenting adults. For example, you can't buy and sell things and you can't get a job without the threat of violence.
Prosperity is increased dramatically by countless voluntary interactions between individuals that occur every minute. We benefit from cooperation, but only when it is voluntary. Violence is never a suitable means of increasing our quality of life, even if it's touted as for the common good and carried out by people with special outfits and fancy titles. Force is force no matter who initiates it.
If I came to your house and painted it neon pink without your permission and demanded that you pay me $20,000 in return, a rational person would acknowledge the injustice. You would not be seen as a thief for refusing to pay.
If you choose to drive on the toll road, you have to pay the toll. You can’t withhold it (or part of it) because you don’t like the fact that they used some of the money to plant flowers in front of the tollbooth.
Wealth is not created in isolation. You use society’s laws and protections every day to earn a living and function within that society. If you don’t pay for those services, YOU are the one guilty of theft.
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Topic: Fascism Advancing (Read 2642 times)
