Sunday, July 9, 2017

Taxation Is Unnecessary

Although taxation is theft, do you wonder if it is still a necessary evil? If it is possible to fund something coercively, it is possible to fund it consensually. If we put our minds to it, we can come up with ways to work together consensually to accomplish great things. The following are possibilities, though not an exhaustive list. There may be even better ideas to be discovered.

Some voluntary ways to fund/produce something, in general

  • Voluntary donations/philanthropy/endowments/crowdfunding
  • Consensual fund raisers (e.g. a lottery)
  • Make it optional to participate in and pay for the service/program.
  • Income from savings (e.g. Edwards, "Financing Government Without Taxation")
  • Businesses in a free market provide the service
  • Non-profit organizations provide the service
  • Voluntary societies/co-ops get together to provide the service for one another

To take an example, a library could be funded by any one of the above. It could operate on subscription fees, or people opting in instead of a tax forced on everyone. Or if you want it to be 'free' to everyone, it could get its income from a philanthropic endowment, fund raisers or complementary goods sold in the library. Or it could be a community effort--a library society. In the latter case it could be a traditional library building, or new models could be invented, such as a book-sharing society organized as a distributed network of private collections. Or a network of the Little Free Library model. The possibilities are limited only by our ingenuity.

Similarly, apply the above general bullet points when thinking through all other services or programs. There has been much discussion on voluntary production of various specific services. Below is a (non-exhaustive) collection of resources exploring ideas and solutions that don't use taxation.

Sources discussing many services/programs

Welfare

Some possible ways to provide for those in need:

Some discussion of how people were cared for in the United States prior to Social Security.

Roads

Education

Fire Fighting

Utilities (electricity, communications, water, sewer)

Police

  • Bruce L. Benson, To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice.
    See also an interview with the author.
  • Local Problems, Libertarian Solutions, "Crime".
  • Recoup from convicted criminals the cost of defense against crime.

Courts

Military defense

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