Useless employees, large and small Part 8

What a nice vacation! Too bad I had to work the whole time…

As I recall (after having reviewed my last post), I left off with a promise to talk about taxation and its application, so let’s start there.
Imagine living in a society that has 6 adult members, of which you are one.
Fortunately for everyone concerned, you and your fellow adults are both intelligent and realistic. You’d realize that in such a small group, having an occasional dinner together would provide the opportunity to work out issues like security, food and shelter concerns, relations with other societies, economics, emergency services, and so forth. You could get it all done yourselves without any need to farm it out. Over coffee and desert, you’d determine how much each would have to contribute in the forms of time and money for the sake of the commonweal. You would all go home with a clear understanding of what you were getting for what you were giving. You would be giving up some specific items of value in exchange for services that would benefit you both individually and collectively, and you would realize that the sacrifices you made would result in larger returns due to the benefits that come with combining forces. Does any of this sound familiar?
Although it should go without saying, I will say it anyway: Your involvement in any and all of these activities would be entirely voluntary. Being reasonable adults – admittedly something of a rarity in our day – no one in the group would hold a gun to the head of any other member and force them to be a part of the plans. And being reasonable adults, no one who decided not to participate would expect to reap any benefits that came from the arrangement. They’d be on their own as far as receiving any services that came from the operations to which all the rest contributed. House on fire? Well, I hope you’ve got a lot of water handy. Need a driver’s license? Sorry, you didn’t contribute to the fund that built the roads, so you can’t use ‘em.
Need protection from incursions by an enemy society? Hope you have lots of guns and people to pull the triggers, because you didn’t contribute to the arming of the militia, or volunteer for duty.
A reasonable person would easily see the benefit of participation; but a reasonable person would also see the folly of being forced to pay for benefits that he didn’t receive, or being forced to pay more for the same benefits than others, or being forced to pay for another member's benefits. If any of these conditions cropped up, a reasonable person would say “No” when told he must pay for their perpetuation, up to and including the use of deadly force to prevent the plunder of his property.
As the years pass, our little society would grow to the point where sitting around the dinner table to discuss matters of state would grow impractical. Instead of patrolling their land on their own, the citizens would establish a police force, and hire officers to perform this duty for them. And so it would go for emergency services, and public utilities, and so forth – and eventually, they would establish a governing body in which to vest these interests, which would – horrors! – include a legislature.

I have a question: at what point would this society be justified in violating the principles laid out when it consisted of only 6 adults? When would it become acceptable for the legislature to pass laws requiring the citizenry to do exactly those things they were previously willing to die to prevent from occurring?

I will close with a few pertinent quotations. The last one represents the only proper understanding of the issue of taxation…

A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. – Thomas Jefferson (1801)

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. – Robert Heinlein

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. – H.L. Mencken


No man's life, liberty, or property (is) safe while the legislature is in session. – Mark Twain (1866)

It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve. – Henry George

All taxation that is not voluntary is theft. – Jeff Hoyt

Next: what they did in Philly…