St. Paul and I Agree...
Taxation is not theft: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." -- Romans 13 The key idea implicit here, and the one that turned me on the subject of whether or not taxation is theft, is that "every soul" owes obedience to the "governing authorities." Now, if that is a debt I truly owe , then, when those authorities levy the taxes they need to do the job of governing, I owe them those taxes, and attempts to collect them certainly do not constitute acts of theft. And obviously it doesn't matter at all, from this point of view, whether or not I "signed" any sort of "social contract." (In fact, the history of political thought since the Reformation can be read as an attempt to find a secular rep...
Yes, it would appear that he did, but let us not be hasty.
ReplyDeleteThat makes two of us, Gene! (Three if we count you.)
ReplyDeleteI was much more amused when I read the title of this post as a desperate imperative...
ReplyDeleteI think the guy who let me borrow the book said he liked it too, so that would make five of us.
ReplyDeleteWait...
The blogger guy, the lender guy, Bob, Gene, and me. I think I'm two of those guys, though. So, six.
Wait...
Yes, I should have posted "Someone Red My Novel!!!" for clarity.
ReplyDeleteAnd then you could have posted a follow-up making a snarky comment about your grammatical error!
ReplyDelete