Many extreme advocates of the rights of individuals think taxation is theft. The basic reasoning is that to take from a person without that person’s permission is stealing, regardless of the purpose. If I don’t have the right to take my neighbor’s money without his permission–for any purpose–I don’t gain that right by getting together with others and doing it as a group or “society.” The consensus of the mob does not make an action right.

The principle doesn’t really change if we elected others (government) to steal the money for us. After all, I could hire someone to steal from my neighbor and people would still call this a theft. Nor does it change anything to claim that it is for the victim’s own good. That’s for him to decide, isn’t it?

Well, that’s the theory, anyhow. Most people accept that some degree of government taxation and control is morally justified. They almost never have good arguments for this, and almost never think about the arguments which suggest taxation is theft, but that doesn’t mean those who favor taxes are wrong. It’s simply normal (perhaps regrettably) to forgo any serious and challenging thought about matters that “everyone” agrees upon. But what about those arguments for the right to tax people?

The arguments which claim that “rights come with responsibilities” are perhaps the weakest, since they suggest that if a man does not do whatever others claim to be his “responsibilities” he has no rights. The founders of the United States agreed with many other political philosophers, that rights are inherent in all humans–in other words you don’t have to “buy” them as the “rights come with responsibilities” argument suggests.

A stronger argument for taking resident’s money by force is that the alternative of anarchy is worse for all–presumably even for those individuals who would rather not pay taxes. Without an apparatus to protect individuals (a government), the existence of rights and freedom in theory doesn’t mean much.

But that doesn’t answer all the questions by any means. In fact, I leave you with four more, just to get you thinking about whether taxation is theft or when it might become so.

1. On what basis are we justified in taking a person’s money or property by force or threat of force (without that threat few would actually pay taxes).

2. How much of a person’s money can we take based on the purposes that justify this taking?

3. Which purposes do justify taxation?

4. Is there a moral difference between voting for others to take money from people and doing it yourself–even if used for the same purposes?

Personally I do not think taxation is theft (except in certain circumstances), but I don’t think because we disagree with an argument we should ignore it, especially if it has any small element of truth to it. Feel free to add you own thoughts below.