4 ms·
It is immoral to force people to pay taxes to finance a local fire department if you believe that it is immoral in general to force people to give up their prop
by patricius 8y ago
It is immoral to force people to pay taxes to finance a local fire department if you believe that it is immoral in general to force people to give up their property.
You can argue that in certain special cases, like in the fire department scenario, you personally believe that theft is morally defensible from some perspective. But then you are not really basing your moral standpoint on any principle, but taking things on a case by case basis, and you end up in a situation where you can essentially always argue that using force is right.
- michaelt 8y agoNobody is _forced_ to pay taxes in the modern age of affordable travel. There is a competitive market of jurisdictions, offering different prices and products. Jurisdiction A includes trash pickup, which you might want because reducing fly tipping increases property values. Jurisdiction B has no trash pickup but low, low prices. People who want B but who buy A instead can hardly complain that A isn't B - any more than a person who buys wine can complain it's not beer.
- patricius 8y agoSo if I live in a city run by the mafia, who extorts me every month, I am not really forced to pay them, since I can just take the bus to the next town?
- michaelt 8y agoExactly. If the mafia have founded a city, and they offer plots subject to monthly extortion, why shouldn't fully informed adults have the right to consent to that?
- dsr_ 8y agoSrguments which start with "it is immoral to force people to give up their property" ignore the initial origin of that property, and frequently several steps of conquest and theft in between.