Are there only 2 basic ways the government takes property (money) from its citizens?

Economics Political Theory
1
  1. Taxiation
  2. Counterfiet the currency

I assume when they borrow money, they have to pay it pack which leads to one of the above ways?

2

No, there’s only one: The use of violence!

Counterfeiting only works until the counterfeiter is hung from a tree…

3

As proudcapitalist stated, there is only one way the government takes property from its citizens: theft (i.e. taxation).

There are different types of taxation though:

  1. Outright taxation (the money withheld from your paychecks, the extra money you have to pay when you buy things at the store, the money you have to send in by April 15th, etc.)
  2. Inflation (the purchasing power that is siphoned away from the cash in your wallet and injected into the newly created money coming out of the printing press or the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet)
  3. Debt/borrowing (the purchasing power siphoned away from future generations to pay for present expenditures)