I'm trying to clean out my inbox. I came across an email that was sent to me in early march. It's just two comments....the original website isn't even mentioned. But i like the comment so much I need to paste it here. So Dwight, whoever you are, nice post.



Dwight said...

"Taxation is theft. The rest is just details." - elliot

Catchy phrase that sadly is flawed because it is based on a very uninformed and/or extreme understanding of ownership. Do you have a house? Is the mortgage paid for?

If so do you believe you own the house and property outright and absolutely without encumbrances? Because if you do then you don't actually understand how things are. There are certain inalienable claims that the state has on that property.

Likewise money. What you don't understand is that you are in effect in a franchise, a collective agreement with everyone else in the country, state, county, incorporated city/town, etc. via the bodies of government. As such it is extreme to the point of lunacy to claim actual "theft" in any meaningful sense of the word.

You have earned that money, and lived your life, by leveraging the assets of that collective (assets of varying levels of tangibility, but all very real). If you were to opt yourself out unilaterally after/while gaining that benefit it would be you that is acting closest to "theft".