Unless private parties -- consumers -- buy stuff, there is no income. The government can intervene and distort things (and should -- I'm not a libertarian) but

Unless private parties -- consumers -- buy stuff, there is no income. The government can intervene and distort things (and should -- I'm not a libertarian) but if there is no private commerce, there is nothing to tax. In a society with no regulation, people still partake in commerce. It has lots of problems and I wouldn't want to live in, say, Somalia, but Somalis still engage in trade and the strongmen who run such places depend on that.