Samael wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mark@unicorn.com <mark@unicorn.com>
> To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
> Date: 11 December 1998 16:38
> Subject: Re: Final Challenge to Socialists
>
> >Samael [Samael@dial.pipex.com] wrote:
> >>You contend that taxes are theft.
> >>I contend that not paying taxes is theft.
> >
> >How can not paying taxes be theft if property doesn't exist? This is
> >absurd; you can't have a rational discussion with someone whose beliefs are
>
> You can replace 'theft' with 'denial of access' if you like.
> I was attempting to use a similar tone of language.
>
> How about:
> Everything is by default accessible to everyone. People define objects as
> 'belonging to them'. They then deny other people access to these objects.
> This is wrong. However, to encourage people to produce more efficient
> objects and more of them and to allow for the most efficient production of
> goods, they ought to be rewarded for producing them/copntributing to their
> production. Therefore they are allowed to deny people access to a
> percentage of these objects. The rest are accessible to everyone.
>
> You would call the bits accessible by everyone 'tax' and the bits you are
> allowed to keep 'property'.
>
Listen buddy, the resources were all good and paid for at the source. Whoever owned it before was fairly paid, and usually they were a government other than the one we all pay taxes to. I don't pay for something twice, ok? There are only two classes of people in the world who can try to make you pay twice for something: mobsters and governments. The second is merely a self-legalized form of the first.
Mike Lorrey