From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu Aug 29 2002 - 19:38:31 MDT
At 07:41 PM 8/29/02 -0400, Technotranscendence wrote:
>I was going to try to stay off this thread...
Me too, but...
>All government employees are paid out of taxes. This includes Marines
>and all other servicemen and women. I.e., they are net tax receivers.
>Since they are paid out of taxes, they are receiving stolen goods.
As usual, I remain puzzled by this strange assertion. If most voters (which
is to say, most adults in `western' democracies and republics) agree that
tax is theft or extortion, might they not be expected to take one of two
immediate steps? First, resist it by refusing to pay. Second, vote
overwhelmingly for the first candidate who declares an intention of
abolishing taxation. I see so little evidence of either option that I'm
inclined to view the grumbling compliance of most taxpayers as endorsement
of the view that this is an acceptable way of handling certain costs. Of
course, one might surmise that most people are too stupid and cowed to be
allowed a serious choice, or too frightened of armed and brutal reprisal,
or that the definition of theft is written in the fabric of the cosmos and
requires no endorsement by mere fickle humans.
Damien Broderick
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