Excellent points. To add to this: a) Taxes are used to pay for a whole host of things that large majorities find highly undesirable, including bombing Libya, h

Excellent points. To add to this: a) Taxes are used to pay for a whole host of things that large majorities find highly undesirable, including bombing Libya, harassing air travellers, and bailing out Wall Street. Whether you are on the left or right, you can add a slew of other programs that are of dubious or negative value. b) Taxes are also extracted involuntarily, literally at the point of a gun if one thinks about the limit case of tax resistance. Try protesting the war(s) by not paying your taxes, and soon enough the IRS will come with guns and throw you in jail. There are some government programs each person will agree with. But it's the lump sum, involuntary nature of taxes that make them a highly inefficient way to fund said programs.