2010-03-06

It's Not Their Money

About government taxes and the notion of getting social services in return Professor Walter Block asserts:  

The point is not that the government gives us services. The question is, is it a voluntary trade? It is anything but, as shown by the fact that if you don’t pay your taxes, you go to the hoosegow.

This last bit has always concerned me. How can the government morally, if one can add such a tag to such an entity, put people in jail for not paying to them money that doesn't belong to them in the first place!?

Of course, to so-called centrists, they will retort by saying the trade off is fair. They consented by voting in a particular politician to enact Service X. The government serves as an impartial arbitrator in ensuring we achieve egalitarianism for certain services we deem essential.

What happens when a politician or party doesn't campaign on a particular platform, say, instituting Service Z? Is it fair to the voter who didn't vote for that since he or she wasn't made aware of it? 

What happens is they're stuck and that's where the consent part becomes a myth.

I don't get to pick and choose where my tax dollars go. If I want to give to, for example, a symphony orchestra but not the local artist who I don't like, that's my business. But the government says "that's not right. You have to give to all so we're going to take your money and give it to the artist anyway because we know what's good for society as a whole."

Art is especially tricky because there's no real way to measure its "returns." We just have to assume it does a culture good. Art is as much subjective as it is objective. Personally, I believe the government should fund major things like museums and ballet troupes. If anything culture and arts should be made accessible to all. It shouldn't be restricted to one part of the population. However, the government must limit itself in its endeavours. If it goes beyond the basics, it demands people subsidize others against their will.

How non-libertarian of me! Once you let the government do something don't you know it will expand itself onto you? Perhaps, but I also want to believe the government can have some ability in recognizing its own "libertarian" impulse.I guess, apparently that makes me a minarchist.

Nonetheless, like anything else, people shouldn't have to be coerced into believing it's necessary.
I would like for someone to explain how this is remotely fair or just.

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