We are told that “taxes are the price of civilized society.” I submit that civilization is damaged by taxation. Think about it: taxation is a government telling its citizens to “pay up or go to jail/have your home/car/etc. confiscated.” Should anyone disagree, I suggest that they look at what happens to those who do not pay their income, property, or sales taxes. The evidence supports my contention quite well.
What is the difference between taxation and someone holding you up and demanding your money or your life? The answer is the robber is not going rationalize the encounter and tell you that it’s for your own benefit that your money is being stolen. The robber will not say that it’s for wars you do not want, wealth-transfer schemes that never work, infrastructure that doesn’t get maintained properly, and “protection” against non-violent “offenders,” such as drug users and parking-ticket scofflaws. Nor will the robber exact more tribute later, such as demanding payment for your “privilege” of building a pool at your house. The robber will further not use your money to give deals to his friends and codify those into law. The robber will not attempt to appeal to your emotions with sob stories about how he needs the money because he’s poor. The robber is more honest and far less dangerous, for the robber cannot make his actions legal — unlike governments.
To “pay our fair share,” we should do it as we do at a restaurant or grocery store: what we individually purchase. Why should we put up with multiple jurisdictional monopolies which demand our property or our freedom? That is uncivilized.
One or two of these, in every paper, every day and public opinion would swing dramatically. It’s easy to be marginalized when you are the lone voice in the wilderness.
I have written to the editor before on foreign policy.
One of my ideas for stuff libertarians (with money) can do, is hire students during the summer to write letters to the editor and other such propaganda campaigns (editing/updating Wikipedia, commenting on big time blogs and newspaper articles). This serves the dual purpose of helping out libertarian students, while encouraging them to increase their skills at communicating libertarian ideas and concepts to wider audiences, all while getting the message out.
The task is to engage, engage, engage the people who are statists only because they have never been presented another perspective.
