RE: Fixing our broken system - where to even begin? Part 2: The political system
Nice article! I noticed an interesting paradox here, specifically for those who would make a government based on things that a government should 'legitimately' do, as opposed to what they should never do;
If a government were to adhere to: "NEVER infringe on the inherent and established rights of the people for any means without a trial of peers (no spying, no breaking and entering, no imprisonment, no confiscation of property, etc.)" then they would never be able to forcibly collect taxes.
Of course if most of the people agree to be forced to give their property over, and decide to call the arrangement 'taxation', then the extortion can appear to be legitimate, but to take another's property by force is usually called 'theft', and even with all of the rights that we individuals inherently have, none of us has the right to take property in that way.
I think that as long as I see other humans as individual sovereign beings with inherent rights, I'll continue to doubt the legitimacy of any group or principle which infringes on those same rights.
Thanks for sharing the article, very well-written and full of interesting concepts.
Thanks a lot! I fully appreciate the anarcho-capitalist perspective as well. (I don't know if you consider yourself one or not.) The ultimate issue is obviously how to pay for services operated by the government. First and foremost, these services need to be fully minimized from the get go. Government needs to be used incredibly sparingly and just for those things that you can't effectively run on a profit-basis in society. I, however, take a very "systems theory" view which focuses on selectively applying the right architectural pattern for the job. Sometimes this is profit-based and sometimes not.
In terms of how to pay for government services, the absolute worst way is through non-apportioned taxes, and this is the reason they are illegal under the US constitution. For apportioned taxes, you still have force but not nearly as badly as with apportioned taxes. If the government owns the monetary printing press, then you could just pay through inflation, but this can be massively abused. If the government owns industries that the people agree to, then these profits pay for the government. This is probably the easiest approach and least "violent". This has its own issues, but probably gets closest to never stealing from the people.