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

• Murray Rothbard, For A New Liberty.
• David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom.

Welfare

Some possible ways to provide for those in need:

• Economic growth
• "progressive capital formation is the only means by which the position of the great masses can be permanently improved."
  --Ludwig von Mises, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, Chapter 33.1.
  See also: Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, particularly chapters XXI and XXXV,
• A large improvement could be had by reducing government intervention in the economy. (e.g. "Welfare Without The Welfare State", Yale Brozen)
• "there has been no decoupling between wages and productivity in the United States"
• Private charity. (e.g. "Welfare Without The State", Hultberg)
• Mutual aid societies
• From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967, David T. Beito.
  Also an interview with the author.
• "A World Without The Welfare State", Richard M. Ebeling
• "Welfare before the Welfare State", Joshua Fulton
• Ellen M. Immergut, Health Politics: Interests and Institutions in Western Europe (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics).
• Encouraging individual saving
  Although the following articles include discussion of forced saving, one might argue that forced saving is morally superior to the theft that is taxation. The actual examples indicate that individual savings is a viable alternative.
• "Singapore: A Fascinating Alternative To The Welfare State", John C. Goodman
• "Welfare: Savings Not Taxation", Douglas & MacCulloch.

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

• "Support of the Elderly Before the Depression: Individual and Collective Arrangements", Carolyn L. Weaver, 1987.
• "'Un-American' or unnecessary? America's rejection of compulsory government health insurance in the Progressive Era", J. C. Herbert Emery.
• "The Politics of Dependency Estimates: Social Security Board Statistics, 1935-1939", Brian Gratton, 1997.
• "The Poverty of Impoverishment Theory: The Economic Well-Being of the Elderly, 1890-1950", Brian Gratton, 1996.
• "Myth of the Industrial Scrap Heap: A Revisionist View of Turn-Of-The-Century American Retirement", Carter & Sutch, 1995.

Roads

• "Without Government, Who Will Build the Roads?"
• Walter Block, The Privatization of Roads and Highways.
• Private highways preceded government highways. E.g. Long Island Motor Parkway and the Lincoln Highway.

Education

• James Tooley, Private Education Is Good For The Poor: A Study of Private Schools Serving the Poor in Low-Income Countries.
• Annie Holmquist, "Black Families in Georgia Are Rejecting Public School".
• Tom Woods, "Education Without The State".
• E. G. West, "Education Without The State". See also the book Education and the State by the same author.
• Chris Cardiff, "Education: What About the Poor?".
• Erica Carle, "Education Without Taxation".
• In the first half of the 1800s, Americans were the best, most widely educated population in the world, yet there was virtually no government funding of education.
• "Most young Americans, therefore, can read, write, and cipher. Not more than four in a thousand are unable to write legibly--even neatly; while in Spain, Portugal, italy, only a sixth of the population can read; in Germany, even in France, not more than a third..."
  --Pierre DuPont, "National Education in the United States of America", 1800.
• "Primary education [in the U.S.] is within reach of all"
  --Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835, Ch 3, p55
• "By 1840, literacy was estimated to be between 91 and 97 percent. There is no evidence that there was an undersupply of schools or a lack of interest in education in the United States. (Richman 38-9)", ("Literacy Rates in Early America")

Fire Fighting

• "Private Firefighting in the U.S.", WildefireX.
• Local Problems, Libertarian Solutions, "Emergency Services",

Utilities (electricity, communications, water, sewer)

• Utilities can be paid for by price of usage, without any tax funding.
• Thomas J. DiLorenzo, "The Myth of Natural Monopoly".

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

• User fees, perhaps paid by convicted criminal or losing party.
• Murray Rothbard, "Society Without a State".

Military defense

• The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production, Editor Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
• Robert Murphy, Chaos Theory.
• Robert Murphy, "But Wouldn't Warlords Take Over?".