This video made me think. I used to think taxation was theft. Especially inheritance, property taxes, income tax etc... Now I think all that while also thinking that you Sir, are crazy.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, "When people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic". "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." - Alexander Fraser Tytler Taxes were very low before the Civil War. What was the level of taxation that lead to the Boston Tea Party? And property taxes are the worst. You can never own your land. You'll always rent it from the government.

The flaw here is identifying the state with society. Property rights disambiguate the blurred line, which is clear from the earlier example of the car crash. Property rights and taxation are fundamentally at odds, where as property rights are the grounds for restitution cases of harm.

Have an open debate on tax id love to argue that tax is absolutely theft in the modern era.

What if I say you owe me a million dollars, who is to say I am wrong? Who decides? The one you owe the debt to? That's dangerous.

If you go to a store to buy bread and find the bread to be stale/mouldy, you can return it, or if still unsatisfied you can get bread from some other shop. There is no recourse for corruption, if we don't approve of how tax money is spent we can't refuse the transaction. We have to go to the same shop and are forced to buy mouldy bread each time. Yet the bread we actually end up using,we have to buy from somewhere else in anyway.

The problem here is not taxation itself, as it's just a tool, the problem is that politicians can then do whatever they want with that money while having people think it's fine to live in a two-party system where both options are just as bad with just surface level differences. If democracy was truly functional, there is no way any country would ever agree to go to war or defend the interests of a few billionaires over their workers.

You get in debt for being born in a certain location of the world. There is no choice, how can there be a debt?

Obligations are not imposed on people. People agree to obligations. If I own a home next to yours, and I have made it beautiful to the point that it increases your property values, you don't owe me any obligation. You should not be forced to pay for my groundskeeper, my water bills, my costs associated with that maintenance and any upgrades, unless you have agreed to it before hand. I couldn't take you to any court and demand that you pay me. This would not change, even if I got the entire neighborhood to agree to chip in for my immense skills in beautifying my property. I couldn't then come to you and say, I have created a benefit to you, which you did not ask for, and our neighborhood has decided that you must pay up. In the above scenario, I have created a value that I can't keep exclusive. It would be like claiming to own the air, and charging you for breathing it. Government not only creates value that is unable to be kept exclusive, it creates value that you have no choice but to avail yourself of, if you plan on being able to survive. How do you leave your house without traveling on a road or sidewalk, for instance? Then there are the things that you never benefit from. I pay property taxes, of which some of those dollars go to schools. I don't have a child going to school though. I am not availing myself of that service. I get no discount because of my lack of having any school age children. My wife has no children whatsoever, at any age. How is she said to be benefiting from paying for schools? The simple fact is, you are claiming that because you want to have your money taken, you are not being stolen from. That makes little sense. If you go up to a homeless person to hand them money, and they tell you to give them the money or they will shoot you, have you not been robbed? The threat of force changes the scenario quite a bit.

I recommend reading the FairTax book by Neal Boortz and John Lender. The history of taxes in America is very interesting.

People used to pay taxes once a year, and they were low. Then the government said "Hey wouldn't you rather pay a little from each paycheck so that it is more manageable?". From then on they have incrementally raised taxes slowly over many decades. Over time people just became accustomed to each increase. I seriously doubt our forefathers would have accepted this. We work over 4 months out of the year just to pay the tax man. Meanwhile people are struggling.

1) Your first car-example is not about taxation, because it is a punishment by court (state, who has monopoly of violence, and therefore it can force you to pay) 2) This whole debate about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable level of taxation is arbitrary, and cannot be ever satisfyingly be determined, because whole monetary system is technically collective illusion in our minds. Determining level of taxation is therefore sort of waste of time, but as long as we live in Society... 3) When rich people argue that taxation is theft, then they should be also prepared to deal with revolutionary poor people, who make them stuff, feed them and service them. Taxation is theft (especially when you tax work or items twice), especially when it is taxed on stupid things (like owning a house - l see that you cannot ever own own home, if you have to pay property tax. You are only renting your home). But it is a theft which must be accepted, as long as we live in this kind of society with that kind of economic system. Whether l like or not. Of course you can remove other tax types and invent new ones, but it is just arbitrary thing, that doesn't satisfy in any logical sense.

Taxation is extortion, since you have the ability to leave at any time it does not constitute "theft" per se.

Subscribed. I am always open to alternative points of view.

The line is actually very simple and clear: if I signed a contract freely and knowingly, without any threat against me, then I owe the debt you suggest. If I did not give knowing and willing consent, then it is armed robbery. I would freely pay for many of the things which taxation supports. I will adamantly oppose those same things being done through violent, nonconsensual means, because violating consent is always wrong.

This is not the kind of video i should want to put my thoughts out on, but it did make me think. I try to accept none of my understand as truth and allow other opinions to filter through and adjust my views on life and existence. I say try because it's a work in progress. That said, this one is going to take some extra time and effort to understand fully.

I have no issue with paying a tax, the issue I have is that your money is taxed when it’s earned, taxed when it’s spent, taxed when you own property with it, and taxed when it’s passed on. I understand there is probably a reason for each of the taxes, but it feels excessive.

I think we get ourselves into trouble because we treat money as something you own rather than resource over which we temporary control. More similar to water which is collected, temporarily used, and returned to nature.

We separated from britan because of tax....the famous line " no taxation without representation"....... This representaion is why there is a debt to be collected. So make sure you're using your representation responsibly and make sure your voice is heard by voting but also in an informed manner

The people that wanted Socrates free were part of Athens society were they not and if so wouldn't that judgement be valid

Taxation shouldn't even exist in the first place, the government should be eager to pay for its own citizens, the people who grant them power in the first place in order to take care of them first! We need an entirely new monetary system.

wats the deal w zenzorzhip anyway lol

...nope.

Viens habiter la France et on en reparlera

Taxation is unfortunately necessary, but it cannot destroy the rights of the people. From the beginning, only the people pay any taxes. It does not matter where the tax of any kind is applied, people end up paying it in the end as an added cost. The republic was founded to protect the rights of the people against enemies AND GOVERNMENT. It is why the people were to always have the right to common law adjudication (statutory law is irrelevant to the rights of the people, as their rights is the limit upon government). Taxes were to apply to business and commerce. It would indeed raise prices for the final consumer, but it gave the people the full choice of where their money (their property) went. The ONE THING that could change and give Americans back their rights is COMMON LAW ADJUDICATION. It is still our right, but those lawyers and judges hide it, for their own advantage.

Corporations get to calculate their profits by reducing any and all costs and ONLY then do they pay taxes if their income was higher, they do not pay VAT on any products. Human beings on the other hand have to IMMEDIATELY upon receiving income pay taxes, the government does not give one single flying F about your costs. That's YOUR problem. Also you absolutely have to pay VAT with money that you ALREADY paid income taxes for. According to me, human beings are worth more than corporations. According to the service corporation called mind-control (ment-govern) aka. government you're worth significantly less. You have significantly less rights. Your survival matters significantly less. If closing down your "non essential" business means your family dies and becomes homeless, so be it is what government says. Did everyone forget? They LITERALLY did that. You ARE non essential according to them. And you PAY them. OR ELSE!!! It's not just theft. It's abuse. Government is inherently evil and ONLY attracts psychopaths who wish to dictate other people's lives and profit from other people's work. Either communists of fascists. That's what ALL governments become and they use OUR money to do it. EXACTLY like the mafia and cartels. But truly even worse. The cartels stop at the point where their own families die. Politicians and "elites" have no line they wouldn't cross.

I can sympathize with that reasoning, but it is not correct. There is no such person as the state, therefore you cannot rightly say that you owe money to it. If taxation is not theft then neither is stealing it back.