Your stated view of taxation is oversimplified. Certainly some taxes can be viewed as fee-for-service, others are protectionist or strategic, or otherwise effe

Your stated view of taxation is oversimplified. Certainly some taxes can be viewed as fee-for-service, others are protectionist or strategic, or otherwise effect policy. If you want a simplified version, you are better off thinking of it something like this: The purpose of taxation is to capture a fraction of the economic activity and use that to fund the business of government. (this doesn't capture explicit redistribution, but keeps it simple)