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These people do exist. I have a cousin who actually believes taxes are theft (when pressed he will walk it back to "extortion"). He believes he does not owe t

by RajT88 3y ago

These people do exist. I have a cousin who actually believes taxes are theft (when pressed he will walk it back to "extortion"). He believes he does not owe the government anything, and neither does anyone else. He also gets mad at the roads not being well maintained. These two things cannot go together. I have an uncle on the other side of the family which is similar. In the rare cases I have sparred with them on social media, I helpfully advised they investigate the rugged beauty of Antarctica.

latency-guy2 3y ago
Supposedly, the government that currently exists appears to tax the entire US population for a number of things, one of those things being infrastructure. This is widely known and not a thing that just came into existence within the bounds of this comment. So logically, is it hypocritical to assume the government is not doing its duty when it taxes the entire population, and the outcome is poorly maintained roads? If that's hypocritical, then all communists and socialists are more extreme versions since the vast majority of them live in capitalist societies and do nothing to live their ideals.
freedomben 3y ago
Your comment is correct in isolation, but you're shifting the definition from people in general[1] to "governments" which means despite being true, it is not a refutation to the above. Previously we were talking about people believing they are completely independent, that is not relying on another person for anything or thinking that they are purely an island. What you are describing are beliefs about governments. Anarcho-capitalist Libertarians do believe as you say about governments, but they absolutely don't believe they are independent of other people. They believe they are very dependent on other people and on societies in general, especially markets. They advocate for a completely free market, free of government interference, but this is very different than believing they are entirely self-sufficient without other humans. [1]: See "full text of the letter" from TFA. It's quite clear that he is talking about humanity in general, not governments. (https://officechai.com/stories/steve-jobs-email-to-self/ https://officechai.com/stories/steve-jobs-email-to-self/)

by RajT88 3y ago

latency-guy2 3y ago

Supposedly, the government that currently exists appears to tax the entire US population for a number of things, one of those things being infrastructure. This is widely known and not a thing that just came into existence within the bounds of this comment. So logically, is it hypocritical to assume the government is not doing its duty when it taxes the entire population, and the outcome is poorly maintained roads? If that's hypocritical, then all communists and socialists are more extreme versions since the vast majority of them live in capitalist societies and do nothing to live their ideals.

freedomben 3y ago

Your comment is correct in isolation, but you're shifting the definition from people in general[1] to "governments" which means despite being true, it is not a refutation to the above. Previously we were talking about people believing they are completely independent, that is not relying on another person for anything or thinking that they are purely an island. What you are describing are beliefs about governments. Anarcho-capitalist Libertarians do believe as you say about governments, but they absolutely don't believe they are independent of other people. They believe they are very dependent on other people and on societies in general, especially markets. They advocate for a completely free market, free of government interference, but this is very different than believing they are entirely self-sufficient without other humans. [1]: See "full text of the letter" from TFA. It's quite clear that he is talking about humanity in general, not governments. (https://officechai.com/stories/steve-jobs-email-to-self/ https://officechai.com/stories/steve-jobs-email-to-self/)