It’s Income-Tax Day in America. In The Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard stated the obvious when he wrote:
It would be an instructive exercise for the skeptical reader to try to frame a definition of taxation which does not also include theft. Like the robber, the State demands money at the equivalent of gunpoint; if the taxpayer refuses to pay, his assets are seized by force, and if he should resist such depredation, he will be arrested or shot if he should continue to resist.
For those who believe that taxes are voluntary or that most people don’t mind paying them, I have only one very non-radical suggestion: makes the payment of taxes voluntary. and let’s see what happens. The change in law would be minimal. Merely change all the “shall pay” phrases in statute to “may pay.” Problem solved.
Or failing that, I have a second suggestion. Supporters of taxation could at least have the decency to allow taxpayers to select where their tax dollars should go. As once suggested by Rothbard: let’s allow the taxpayers to select which departments and agencies get their tax dollars. At least then government agencies would have to make the case for providing a service that at least some people (other than government agents and government-connected corporations) actually want.
In the meantime, though, here’s a quick list of tax readings from the Mises Institute:
Income Tax: Root of All Evil by Frank Chodorov
On The 100th Anniversary of the Income Tax by Mark Thornton
The Income Tax is Un-American by Mark Thornton (audio)
The Corporate Income Tax: An Entrepreneurial Perspective by Valerio Filoso
The Origin of the Income Tax by Adam Young
Time for Another Revolution by Frank Chodorov
Abolish My State’s Income Tax (Please!) by Christopher Westley
Image source.
