Taxation Is Theft: Socrates from the grave
Taxation is Theft by its Definition
Taxation is theft because the way it is taken and used, regardless of the outcome. Webster's Dictionary Defines Theft as; the act of taking property or money belonging to another, by force, stealth, or coercion without that person's freely given consent. So drawing from this the definition of Taxation is as followed: Tax: a financial charge imposed upon a person or group, by the government, to fund the government and its programs, which is enforced by threat of punishment under the law. In this paper I will explain how taxation is the same as theft with the threat of extortion, coercion and other means to show that the literal definition of a Tax is theft.
Some argue a Tax is not theft because of the service’s it provides and tends to argue from the “social contract” point of view. An article published titled “Taxation is Not Theft” from the Progressive blog Whistling In the Wind uses this argument. That since the land is owned by America and service’s and good’s are used for it it is not theft like Classical Liberals argue. He quotes as saying “Let me use an analogy that I think will best get the point across. Think of taxes as like paying rent. The state owns the land and if you want to live on the land you must pay rent. The state is like a shopping centre (or shopping mall for my American readers). If you want to enter it you must agree to abide by its rules. If you refuse, you will be punished by the security guards. If you don’t like this shopping centre go to a different one instead. A libertarian may complain that this is unfair because no matter where they will go they will have to live in a state and therefore be subject to someone’s rules. But if you refuse to go to one shopping centre you still have to go to one somewhere. Likewise if we abolished the state, then no matter where you went you would still be one someone else’s private property and therefore subject to their rules”. While this argument comes from you were born in Property X you are subject to said contracts and services provided to you regardless of a moral background of it being a theft or not.
From the Mises Institute Frank Chodorov has said this about taxation in an article called “Taxation is Robbery”; The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines taxation as "that part of the revenues of a state which is obtained by the compulsory dues and charges upon its subjects". That is about as concise and accurate as a definition can be; it leaves no room for argument as to what taxation is. So going from this when I quote his words which reign true 70 years later as correct; “It will be seen that indirect taxation is a permission-to-live price. You cannot find in the marketplace a single satisfaction to which a number of these taxes are not attached, hidden in the price, and you are under compulsion either to pay them or go without; since going without amounts to depriving yourself of the meaning of life, or even of life itself, you pay”.
So going from these Idea’s we see that the word coercion according to Webster's Dictionary: the use of threats, intimidation, or trickery to force or repress a peaceful person's actions. So when you shop and buy something for 19.99 with state sales tax 6% of your money in Ohio is taken without your consent at any given point, at which comes to the point of it being violent? If you do not own 100% of your time and energy or wealth someone is using the initiation of violence to take a percentage out, be it 1% or 99%. It is still Theft.
Reason magazine has recently done an article as well on The Internal Revenue Service and other tax agencies and through logic and the Socratic Method of logic has come to the same conclusion. The federal tax code set up by the IRS is 72,000 pages this consumes more than six billion person hours per year to determine taxpayer's' taxable income for each household. The US for each US household.
Over the weekend the Internet Memes taxation is theft met a spike of interest according to an article written by John Vibes from March 26th 2016 that the idea is catching on; “Sharing memes won’t save the world on its own, but it can help to raise awareness about important ideas and get people curious about concepts that they have not considered before. One recent example of this phenomena is how the phrase ‘taxation is theft’ has recently become mainstream thanks to a viral meme campaign.
Hundreds of memes, some that are funny, and some that don’t even make sense, relating to the “taxation is theft” theme have littered the internet in recent weeks, and while some people may be getting tired of them, they are having an incredible impact in raising awareness about the idea.
In fact, a quick look at google search data shows that the last month has seen a massive spike in online interest in the term and that web searches for the term are at an all time high”.
If you think “taxation is theft,” is just a joke, just think of the government as people without any special powers over you. If an average person takes money from someone under the threat of force it is called robbery, But if The IRS does it or the government through the word "taxation" it is called a social contract. The author quotes "it has been forced on millions of people against their will, and a long list of justifications have been created to convince people that they are not being stolen from." Since the Government is allowed to extract money from anyone they want at the threat of this violence this guarantees they get funding for any project that they want, even if they are unpopular or harm other human beings.
There is a great amount of propaganda and distractions for a concept like this. For so long and civilizations have been propelled by violence instead of logic and rationality. the author even says that some people will cringe at the idea that humans could live without a Tax. Even when The US did not have a federal one until 1913 and functioned properly. The statement above shows that "the social contact" is a logical fallacy on its principle. that taxation is theft and the author sums it up best when he deduces that if taxation was not mandatory it would cause an initiation of violence at a group known as the IRS and or federal government at some point.
This alone shows that the definition of a tax is a threat at some point logically and the lack of acknowledging it is willfully saying “necessary evil” is ok which goes against morality and logic when initiated violence is wrong no matter how you look at it.
Nicholls, Peter. "Why Taxation Is Not Theft." Whistling In the Wind. N.p., 22 Mar. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2016. https://whistlinginthewind.org/2014/03/22/why-taxation-is-not-theft/.
Chodorov, Frank. "Taxation Is Robbery." Human Events Associates (1847): n. pag. Mises Institute. 17 Apr. 2007. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. https://mises.org/library/taxation-robbery
Napolitano, Andrew. "Taxation Is Theft." Reason.com. N.p., 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. http://reason.com/archives/2013/04/18/taxation-is-theft.
.
Vibe, John. "One Group’s Viral Meme Campaign Taught the Internet That “Taxation Is Theft” Http://thefreethoughtproject.com/web-searches-taxation-theft-time-high-viral-meme-campaign/#e3OlyfTuR1cK6fIg.99." Web log post.Http://thefreethoughtproject.com/. N.p., 26 Mar. 2016. Web. 29 Mar. 29. http://thefreethoughtproject.com/web-searches-taxation-theft-time-high-viral-meme-campaign/.