Humans evolved to live in small groups. Governments are an attempt at doing something a small group would not need to codify. Of the governing systems that have been tried, the most successful are the ones that focus on the individual as a unit, and private property as something that unit requires. Other systems have failed, and miserably so.
Right, hence the “necessary”. Living in a group means that the group places its interests before the individual’s. This includes restraining what the individual may do, and directing what he may think, believe, worship, or say. For the individual, society is a necessary evil, he needs it to survive, but its effects are not all beneficial to him.
Cite?
Note that the small groups humans evolved to live in have sky-high murder rates compared to what we’ve got now, some going as high as more than half the population dying via homicide. I’m pretty happy to not live in our natural state :).
Indeed, the ones that focus on private property, mediated through taxation, are the ones that have succeeded best. Governments that go for minimal taxation don’t tend to work very well in our modern high-tech world, and by “high-tech” I mean highways.
In both you have the option of leaving. Neither the HOA nor the government is keeping you by force. The fact that you cannot find another house or society to live in is not the fault of the HOA or the government.
Well, I believe it’s a bit harder than you think. Show me that you really needed that income, and how your life is worse for not having it.
Mafia extortion doesn’t prevent you from leaving the country either.
Cite?
Actually, null hypothesis is that they don’t work; if you think they do, show me an example of one. AFAICT, they’re all failed states–Somalia, Afghanistan under the Taliban, etc.
If you can show me a state that prospers without state-funded infrastructure like highways, though, please do so.
Right, they’ll just kill you if they catch you. Which is similar to moving from one country to another in pretty much no way.
Weakest definition of evil ever.
[quote=“septimus, post:72, topic:657704”]
[LIST][li] I approve of Daddy Baboon extorting half the banana on his daughter’s behalf. That’s all folks; I’m just trying to help you understand the definition of “extort.”[/li][/QUOTE]
I see that a lot from the big government lovers. We are all kids, and the government is the big daddy who knows better than us what’s good for us.
[QUOTE=msmith537]
Most economists believe that not every service should or even could be provided by the private sector.
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It should be intuitively obvious. The private sector’s sole purpose is directly at odds with the goal of collective bargaining.
What definition of evil? I didn’t give one.
The mafia protects you from other criminals (and punishes them) if you pay your protection money.
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Rich people–who presumably ought to be major contributors to that pot–need the services too. You might own blocks of rental properties or industrial parks but you also need “society”, in the form of courts, law enforcement, and education to uphold your property interests.
If you can find my post which says government provides no services at all and should collect no taxes, please do so.
So, if you move cities to get away from a local protection racket, you’re saying that they’ll come catch you and kill you?
Whut?
I love taxes. They help pay for my public parks, schools, roads, museums, government, postal workers, street signs, holidays, etc. Without taxes none of that may be possible. If taxation is extortion then I say extortion is a good thing
If you’re trying to get out of paying them without their approval? Yes, that’s a recipe for getting your legs broke- it’s at least a risk you are taking. It’s in no way comparable to freely moving from one country to another.
It would be very easy to have minimal taxation if the government focused only on the proper functions of government–things like military, police, fire, and transportation.
Every year, the IRS puts out a summary of the federal government’s revenues and spending. “National defense, veterans, and foreign affairs” category is 24% of the budget, and “Law enforcement and general government” is 2%. “Physical, human, and community development” (which includes transportation) is 8%, and interest on the debt is 6%. All those categories add up to 40%, or about $1.44 trillion out of a total budget of $3.6 trillion.
In other words, if the government did only what it’s supposed to do, that year would have had a surplus of $860 billion, instead of a deficit of $1.3 trillion.
Personal income taxes accounted for 30% of the government’s revenue–which means that we could reduce the total personal income tax burden by roughly 80% and still balance the budget.