Rant, triggered off by someone I don’t know who, on one of Jeff Ford’s posts, trotted out the tired old “taxes are theft under threat of violence” idea:

Not only is this absurdly melodramatic, it’s dead wrong.

Taxes are a mechanism by which we collectively contribute to the common good as we’re each able to do so. We sanction people who refuse to contribute, even though they could, and we do that in part because those people have already benefited from those collectively funded common goods. If they refuse to join in the system because it isn’t voluntary (as if their individual will was some grand and sacred thing), there is a thief in that scenario – but it’s not the government.

If you’re on the Internet, you are using a system the original development of which was paid for by taxes. You’re using a device which is only possible because of a system of international trade, ports, transport systems, standards, consumer protection laws, and on and on, paid for by taxes. If you drive a car down the street, the same is true of your car, and the street, and the signs, and all the laws to enable you to do so safely (and without being assaulted and your car stolen). Statistically, you’re probably alive because of public health laws, food safety laws, and medical research funded by taxes. And that’s without even getting into public education – even if you are one of the rare few who hasn’t received any, the fact that widespread education exists, a situation of immense benefit for society at large, is a consequence of government and taxes.

Government is not a perfect, or even sometimes even a good, means of achieving collective goals. But nor are corporations. Nor are voluntary organisations. People who want to get rid of government because it doesn’t work all the time are abdicating the much harder task of getting it to work more often.