(03-25-2023, 08:38 AM)jj82284 Wrote:

(03-25-2023, 08:27 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: It's like you completely ignored the post you were responding to.  "Lawful theft" is an oxymoron.   The definition of theft is "the act of stealing or taking something from someone unlawfully."  Since taxes are implemented by enacting laws, taxation cannot be theft.

So slavery, fine!  Holocaust, hey it was THE LAW.

Obviously there is a moral law over and above the written law.  There is also international law, for what that's worth, which was used to punish the perpetrators of the Holocaust and some of the transatlantic slavers. That aside, the "unlawful" part is not critical to the definition.  You could also define theft as "the taking of property without consent," and it can be shown that taxes are not theft because the recognition of property is a social function.  We all have to, or at least most of us have to, agree that that particular plot of land is yours, before it's yours.  If somebody disagrees, and tries to take the land from you, you will need others of us to agree that you should keep it and help you resist the one who disagrees.  Maybe you will call a judge or a posse but either way it's not something you do by yourself.  So as property is inherently social consensus, what is taxation besides another social consensus about what is "ours" rather than "yours"?

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