OK, libertarians often talk about how taxation is theft while statists call the libertarians crazy. The statists don’t understand why libertarians would call taxation a form of theft and honestly many libertarians who make the statement that taxation is theft don’t fully understand why. Thus we have a lot of people with a misunderstanding walking around and I feel it necessary to explain the concept of taxation being theft. Really this post is me being selfish, instead of having to retype this argument every time I make it I’m just going to link back to this.
The foundation of libertarian philosophy is founded on something we like to call the non-aggression principal. The non-aggression principal states all aggression is illegitimate. Aggression is defined as any initiation of force, be it physical or simply a threat, against another person or their property (which I’ve explained is actually an extension of a person). This means any time somebody initiates force or coerces somebody to perform an action it is seen as illegitimate by libertarian philosophy.
Taxation is the collection of money by the state. This collection isn’t voluntary though as not paying money to the state will lead to them either confiscating your property or placing you in prison. The threat of property confiscation and prison time are forms of aggression and thus the action of taxation is seen as illegitimate by libertarian philosophy. When one party uses aggression to obtain property of another party the act is called theft and we say the first party stole from the second party. For example if I threatened to kidnap you and hold you in my basement for 10 years if you don’t pay me 10% of your earning every year most people would consider my act theft. Thus comes the phrase taxation is theft.
Libertarians aren’t claiming taxation as theft because we’re greedy. The claim is made because the entire concept goes against the very foundation of libertarian philosophy, the non-aggression principal.
Now you statists can stop calling us crazy when we claim taxation is theft. You are more than free to make an attempt of arguing for social benefits of taxation but please stop screaming, “YOU’RE FUCKING CRAZY!” We’re getting sick of hearing it and it makes you look like a moron who lacks a real argument against our statement. Those identifying as libertarians please understand the reason behind the phrase, “Taxation is theft.” You’re not helping libertarianism by making statements you can’t explain, it just makes us look crazy to the statists.