RE: My definition of Socialism and why you do not need force to realize it
Cool to see that you would see the taxation of goods as a step in the right direction. I had a very similar line of thinking, when I heard the idea (no more tax shelters, less bureaucracy, tax hit "the right people")
If we must have government and we must have taxes then VOLUNTARY taxes are the only kind I support.
Though ultimately I don't think we would need a government and I think to some degree we are making strides towards that. Yet present day VOLUNTARY taxes (voluntary also means not required to survive, not coerced, etc) are something I would support. I also know it could easily fund governments. They are very wasteful at the moment primarily because they CAN BE and no one stops them and the claim of "classified, secret, national security, etc." allows fraud and corruption to go unaudited.
I don't actually believe the government has much need of secrets.
In a democracy a government should not be allowed to have any secrets towards its people.