> Taxes aren't the government stealing money that you willed into existence out of thin air, you're paying to live in a society built to protect your wealth.

> Taxes aren't the government stealing money that you willed into existence out of thin air, you're paying to live in a society built to protect your wealth. Well, the Mafia do protect businesses which pay them protection money, too. Sure, you have a (single) vote for a few legislators and an executive at the state and federal levels to influence the IRS, but the influence of your vote is probably less than your shared humanity is an influence on a don's enforcers. There's a question of the extent to which the government's (or the Mafia's) taxation is commensurate with the services it renders, but they're equally involuntary. (and yes, government is necessary, and preferable to lawlessness; that doesn't mean that everything it does is right, nor does it mean that it's voluntary, any more than the execution of a convict who doesn't physically fight every step to the gallows is voluntary)