Hello, neighbor. I dropped off a bag of groceries for you (food being essential for life). That'll be $500, by the way.

If for some reason you refuse to pay for these basic services, I will then be forced to destroy your livelihood and possibly imprison you.

Your neighbor is not the government and has no qualities of what a government has.

Taxation is a necessary form of funding to the entities that are responsible for managing negative externalities.The fact that they have a monopoly on violence is also a boon to society.

Taxation and the state as the primary power are fundamental components to the modern social contract. The onus is on naysayers to rovide proof that a system that lacks these components is better.

> The onus is on naysayers to rovide proof that a system that lacks these components is better.

This is true only if they are arguing another system is better.

I would argue that our current system - including taxation - is immoral. Whether or not it’s “better” by whatever standard you choose to apply has no bearing on that argument.

This is the difference between the deontological and utilitarian perspectives.

lol, that exactly how taxation works. You are forced to pay something which you did not ask for.

Ofcourse the pro-taxation crowd simply does does not understand this - they argue that you did indeed make use of the bag of groceries. Huh? chicken-and-egg really....

I'd rather have police than private militia, but I'm not living in the us so I understand if you rather have the former.

And if you did, i and a bunch of other would pool our money together to order hits on strike breakers. World would be fun again until ww3