A couple of loose ends:
Purpose of the thread
I believe the purpose of the thread was established by Glitch.
Involuntary taxation
This is a three-fold whammy:
[li] Ethcial implications[/li]
Detractors of libertarianism will invariably concoct a justification in what they do for Paul to mitigate mugging Peter. In order to do this, they imbue agents of government with a mystical quality that entitles those agents to do what no one else in the general population may do. Were Paul himself to take from Peter his own portion of what government agents would take, Paul would be a criminal.
Trying to corner this mystical quality is like trying to catch a wet bar of soap in a hurricane. In every case, it is reduced to a basic contempt for the individual’s consent. The individual is made into an abstraction, and society is made into a living entity, thus reversing the natural order and creating a sort of antimatter universe in which the few are sacrificed for the sake of the many.
[li] Victim compenstation[/li]
Detractors argue that what Peter receives from the muggings of others compensates for what he has forfeited. Yet this is hardly ever the case. Now, it might be the case were Peter allowed to submit to the mystical agent a list of what he needs: “I don’t need that million dollar out-house with nonflushing toilets in the New England national park, but I do need the bridge just down the street from me.”
In that case, the mystical agent basically just does Peter’s shopping for him. That would be a one-to-one correspondence between what Peter needs and what is delivered to him for the seizure of his property. Of course, the mystical agent would have to do this work for nothing because were Peter to shop for his needs himself, he would not have to pay for the mystical agent’s salary and the salaries of his staff of lawyers and clerks, the maintenance of the grounds and buildings where he works, or the expenses (like haircuts and lunches) he incurs.
But that’s not all. Ignoring the one-to-one correspondence, there is also the matter of threshold. Peter, by his lifelong work and sweat, has managed to just afford exactly the school he and his wife have always dreamed of for his son. The school costs $X dollars annually, just the amount that Peter has saved. Now along comes the mystical agent who takes Y away from Peter, so that Peter and his wife now have (X-Y), and are unable to afford the education they prefer for their son. Peter was willing to forego what he would have bought for $Y in order to use $X for his son’s education, but the mystical agent has decided that Paul has needs as well and that Peter is responsible for them. Somehow, the mysterious agent always has a lot more sense than the giant squid, so he attempts amelioration of Peter’s plight by offering Peter a subsidized alternative to his dream school, one that might or might not teach the values and curriculum that Peter desires.
[li] Compound markup on prices[/li]
Because the seizure of property is ubiquitous, nothing escapes payment to the mystical agents, not even when it has already been paid. Consider the case of a jackhammer needed to build a road in front of Peter’s business.
We start at the mines. There, laborers pay a portion of their earnings to the mystical agents. This is called a payroll tax. The mines match some portions of the payroll tax, including medicare and social security. They pay unilaterally the unemployment insurance and other involuntary fees to general pools from which the mystical agents draw for their favorite pork. The mines also pay a portion of their revenues for the right to use the property they own. This is called a property tax. Sometimes this tax is subsidized by neighbors of the mine who might or might not consume its goods directly. This is done for the purpose of creating a revenue pool that the mystical agents may tax. The mines also pay gasoline and transporation taxes and fees, like DOT licenses, and inventory and sales taxes on the tools and components they keep on hand to do their work. Sometimes, the sales taxes are subsidized by other consumers of the tools and components. Because the mine operates under the auspices of manifold mystical agencies, like DOT, OSHA, EEOC, and the like, it must maintain staffs of consultants, accountants, lawyers, managers, and clerks to ensure adherence to the agencies’ myriad and sometimes conflicting or frivolous rules and regulations.
Now, were it simply a matter of selling goods for a profit, the mines might calculate that, for every $1.00 in cost, they need to make $1.25 to pay wages and salaries, the Cost of Goods Sold, and owner equity. This would represent a profit of 20%, since markup equals the reciprocal of cost divided by price. However, since they must also pay the Cost of Mystical Agencies, the mines might calculate that they must charge a markup of 80%, or $5.00 for every $1.00 in nominal cost, plus $3.00 in mystical costs in order that they might still make a profit of 20%. So the raw material heads out the door, inflated at four times its nominal cost.
Remember the jackhammer? The jackhammer is comprised of numerous component parts, like bearings and bushings, for example. But you can’t just make ore into bushings, so we go to the foundries, where the ore brought from the mines at greatly inflated prices goes again through the same costly interference by the mystical agents that it did before. The foundry must pay payroll taxes, sales taxes, inventory taxes, property taxes, involuntary fees and subsidies, and salaries for support staff to oversee dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. (Mystical agencies are notorious for their anal attention to detail.) The ingots of steal formed from the raw materials, and carrying severely but necessarily inflated markups, are then shipped out the door to component manufacturers all across the country. (You’ll need not just bearings and bushings, but switches, handles, drill bits, motors, and other components for the jackhammer.)
We find that the ball bearing manufacturer is not exempt from the pilfering arms of the mysterious agents. Here, once again, the producer must pay the Piper and charge the cost to its consumer, who happens to be a maufacturer’s rep, who must also pay his dues for the right to exist, and pass his costs along to the wholesaler, who sells the bearings with their costs now inflated many times over to the jackhammer manufacturer, who inflates them once again to sell to the road builder, who encounters, in addition to the costs enumerated heretofore, yet a whole new set of costs, namely, the costs of bidding for business from the Mystical Agencies who will play like they are the general contractors for the road’s construction. Bidding for their business is much more expensive than bidding for business in general. Their RFQs (Requests for Quotation) come in boxes sometimes, with multiple volumes of specifications and qualifications that bidders must follow to the letter.
Be mindful that not only the jackhammer, but all other components of the road’s construction as well — the trucks and every component therein, the shovels, the uniforms, the refined tar, the bulldozers and their components, the drills, the hammers, and even the pencils in the supervisors’ pockets — have gone through this same or a similar process to arrive in front of Peter’s business. (Remember Peter?) Plus, the actual contractor (whom the mysterious agents hired because they don’t really do general contracting — they just play general contractors on TV) must now pay the same taxes and fees. Some of the components that are used by the contractor, like trucks, are also used by the mines (remember the mines?) where they are bought at their compounded markup levels to start the whole process over again.
(I still want to change my name though, after a short, rational, calm post was ignored by a certain poster simply due to my name)