Taxation is Theft because income is taken from people, without their approval, in the name of safety or security. And to a large extent these funds are funneled to government which in turn misuse them by enriching themselves via various schemes and/or provide inefficient services like legal systems, administration, police, inefficient housing projects, etc. Also the majority of these schemes provided by the taxed money have minimum benefits to the people who are taxed. How is this different from a thievery? In this case no one can go to police and try to recover their wasted taxes. The only reason one can not sue the government in most cases is because it can either put you in jail or kill you. Governments in such countries always try to tax the wealthier, more productive sections but over time these sections will leave the country for better tax regimes.
Inefficient Schemes of Governments
Here are some of the ways governments misuse taxed money:
Free loans/schemes to Farmers- In certain Indian states, farmers get free electricity, loans and grant money just for farming their land. Due to this farmers become inefficient and moreover government buys their products without price discovery, creating artificial price inflation and in some cases farmers do not need to pay them back. The burden of producing electricity, loan money, etc. are imposed on the private sectors. Why does government feel they have the authority to take money from one group, and provide a free service to another group where there is no benefit to the party being taxed? This is mainly just pandering, to get votes from the the parties supposedly being benefitted.
Public sector institutions - it is proven that 99% of all public institutions provide very low quality services whether its focus is health, law or education, because there is no, and there cannot be, competition between parties providing the service. And majority of the tax money goes in providing employment in these sectors. They simply settle into a pattern of providing the lowest quality service that can be tolerated. These institutions may have been created for idealistic reasons, but over time, the key reason these institutions remain is because they form a huge vote bank to the elected government officials. Moreover, the employees of these sectors become so lazy that they feel the government MUST provide better salaries for these services because they can threaten by devoting the party. In this vicious cycle even the new elected party becomes very sceptic in removing such employment. In case new government removes employment there will be huge riots caused by these people because of their inefficiency.
Grants to Minorities, Scheduled castes or Tribes, in India - Land grants and money are given to various minority populations by government just because they are poor or disadvantaged minorities of the population. Due to this, productive people are unfairly taxed and these minority groups do not perceive that they are getting benefits at the expense of other people. After certain generations they feel its their birth right to have these benefits. And any party which denies those benefits tends to be voted out of office.
Other welfare Schemes - there are other welfare schemes such as grants for single mothers, free medical supplies, privileges and perks to government employees, welfare programs for blacks, free rations for poor people etc. which may start well, but become detrimental to societies. Even though these are done with good intentions, they eventually produce detrimental effects. In America for instance, welfare money granted only to single mothers led to generations of fatherless children because if there was a dad, there was no free money. So women became increasingly irresponsible by mating with bad men and their claim child care from the government because of these bad choices.
The assumed benefits, instead of improving their situation, created a worsening situation with ever more cries for further assistance from society to get more grants.
Military Spending - Government not only steals money from its citizens, but it also engages in unwanted wars with other countries because collected tax can go to weapons manufacturers with sufficient tension between nations, ending in imposing new tax rules on other countries. This way government controls other sovereign nations instead of building relationships. The citizens are always brainwashed that such actions are taken in the name of patriotism, safety and security, but the main aim of most of these actions are to enrich politicians and companies that produce weapons, oil, chemical industries, etc.
Some of the questions society need to ask themselves
* Why am I paying taxes, is it providing direct benefit to me as an individual?
* Do other people receiving the benefits of taxes at the expense of others realize it and do they appreciate the gifts they are receiving?
* By increase or reduce of taxation was there benefit to individuals rather than as collective?
* Why are people who are taxed more, more stressed and have fewer children and less happy lives than people who are not taxed or less taxed?
* Aren't the people who are taxed are paying higher prices for goods and services than people who are not paying taxes?
* Due to favoring different sections like farmers, scheduled castes or tribes, minorities, blacks, etc., is there a population explosion among the poor because of these benefits?
* Do groups receiving the benefit of free money become less able to care for themselves, and more likely to agitate for more of such schemes?
* How many people would actually volunteer to pay these taxes if given a choice?
If you honestly answer these questions one can see that taxation is not only theft but also often creates new problems. People who pay taxes completely rely on government to provide everything in exchange, rather than have a feeling that it is their duty and responisbility for better life than government. Sooner or later the most productive people leave the country, structure their income to avoid taxation altogether, or stop taking risks by starting small business. One has to realize that the only way to stop government corruption is to starve the beast by controlling funding. The creation of a better society rests on the shoulders of people helping each other rather than demanding government take money from a productive group to give it away to another, less productive group.
Solution
The solution is to reduce taxation to the bare minimum, limited to absolutely necessary items, and encourage people to solve their problems themselves through their own thoughts and actions.
Maintaining local areas - Maintaing local roads, municipalities should be done by the people in that area and the normal standard of should be defined by governement. Since local people use their areas more than other remote people it lies in the responsibility of those people to take care of their surroundings.
No Individual taxes - Money earned by the people should not be taxed at all at any cost. This way normal individual take risks in producing new goods and services so encourages more small scale business hence more employment.
No property taxes - their is no need to have property taxes as its the citizens right to own property and there is no need of government interference on privacy of people.
No inheritance taxes - Again their is no need of taxes if people got money from others whether that relation is friends or family related.
No GST/VAT or service taxes - State or central governments should any shape or form impose these service taxes.
This begs the question of how does the government run. Since the sources of government revenue is greatly decreased then one can expect this incentives very less leaders to be part of government.
Sources of government revenue
However, there are several ways government can still make money for survival of the country, here are some of them:
Duty on export/import goods & services - To address that country earns money by imposing taxes on imported/exported goods. This makes sense because the external goods/services are competing with regional markets so its unfair for the region similarly vice-versa. One can fix this rate between 10 %-30%, since taxes collected are very less hence this revenue is used to build crucial elements of the country like defense, police, legal, national highways, other main roads, defense, premier educational institutions, railways and dams. And also because of less funds available, the above systems will be forced to come up ways to solve in efficient ways.
By this one can elimnate public sector institutions like hospitals, schools, etc hence less corruption and inefficient people in these sectors. Especially this is seen in India and other countries where public sector professionals are highly unproductive and the only reason they are in their jobs because they are not fired or they get lot of perks and vote the parties favoring them.
Everything is privatized by local small enterprises which compete each other to drive the price down. Local street roads are maintained by the people living in that area since they are the most common people who use those roads. Everything is localized hence other communities are not affected.
Tax on Natural resources- As the natural resources are part of the country, government can earn revenue by taxing the businesses dealign with these resources.
Tourism- this service is also a very good source of income as it attracts lot of people across the country and outside the country.
Public services- services like transportation, licensing and others can also provide sources of revenue to the government.
Voluntary taxation- In situations where local areas or even at national levels needs money due to emergencies like earthquakes or cyclones or wars, etc then a voluntary way of collecting taxes should be maintained so that people can contribute funds for that cause. Only through voluntary service/taxation people realise that it is their duty to improve their society and nation as a whole.
Consequences of reduction in taxes:
Less governance: Lot of political leaders are sociopaths who feeds on power, with less taxation you are improving situation by starving these leaders. Because of these there is less willingness of such sociopathetic leaders come to power as there is very little incentive.
Flourish in small business: Encourages risk taking by the people as they have more money to invest hence flourishes the economy.
Quality goods and services: Better prices for consumers, because there will be lot of small business more quality products at cheaper prices will be available.
Responsible citizens : People become more responsible by helping each other as now they feel its their duty to keep their surroundings good, and have healthy society.
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