Taxes are an involuntary transfer of wealth made under threat of coercive violence. Theft is an an involuntary transfer of wealth made under threat of coercive violence.
Saying that does not mean much until one defines the proper scope of legitimate violence in society. Max Weber made the analytically useful point that one definitional aspect of modern government is its monopoly on legitimate violence.
Americans sometimes have this silly idea I like to call the “Holy Divine Right Of Tiny XML Tags Assigning Exclusive Ownership” or the “Principle of You-Can’t-Have-It-’Caus-It’s-MINE”.
For those who do, the idea that a government would forcibly, without giving you a choice retract from your possession a number of Game Points, which everyone agrees to hold as representative of value under the assumption that this very same government will enforce continuous acceptance of the value of these Game Points, is very evil and a violation of the above principles that are in their mind inviolable and necessary and ontological and what-have-you.
Nevermind all the complicating factors, such as the fact that you can choose not to give them points simply by not acquiring more than a set amount of points per year (hell, in many cases if you do this they will give you points).
You are pattern matching to a straw-man version of a belief which is not even the one I was relying on.
All the relevant part of my argument requires is for
Taking an action (voting) to reduce the amount of money one person who is not you has (whether they be an ex-recipient of state funding or a new taxpayer) and increases the amount another has (whether they be an ex-taxpayer or a new recipient of spending)
to be more similar to
Taking an action (stealing and donating) to reduce the amount of money one person who is not you has (the victim) and increases the amount another has (the beneficiary of the charity)
than to
Taking an action (donating to charity) to reduce the amount of money you have and increases the amount another has (the beneficiary of the charity)
It was indeed very strawman, of that I was aware. The strawman version is easier to get across and requires crossing less inferential distance in most cases I’ve experienced.
Thanks for straight-up telling me that I was pattern matching to the wrong belief. Upon reconsideration, this is clearly true. The grandparent deserves the downvotes.
The strawman version is easier to get across and requires crossing less inferential distance in most cases I’ve experienced.
I’ve never found that to be true. It’s an absence of evidence issue—if the best you can do is explain a faulty version of your opponent’s argument, maybe you can’t actually explain the real argument. Thus, there’s no reason to trust the accuracy of your explanation.
Hmm, that’s something I hadn’t considered. Yes, maybe the real factor was that I wasn’t explaining the real arguments as well, even after multiple attempts (which is probably because I don’t understand them well, if true, because the lack of this common cause would imply statistical weirdness and that I should expect my next attempt at explanation to go remarkably well, right?).
Stealing?
Taxes are an involuntary transfer of wealth made under threat of coercive violence. Theft is an an involuntary transfer of wealth made under threat of coercive violence.
Saying that does not mean much until one defines the proper scope of legitimate violence in society. Max Weber made the analytically useful point that one definitional aspect of modern government is its monopoly on legitimate violence.
Americans sometimes have this silly idea I like to call the “Holy Divine Right Of Tiny XML Tags Assigning Exclusive Ownership” or the “Principle of You-Can’t-Have-It-’Caus-It’s-MINE”.
For those who do, the idea that a government would forcibly, without giving you a choice retract from your possession a number of Game Points, which everyone agrees to hold as representative of value under the assumption that this very same government will enforce continuous acceptance of the value of these Game Points, is very evil and a violation of the above principles that are in their mind inviolable and necessary and ontological and what-have-you.
Nevermind all the complicating factors, such as the fact that you can choose not to give them points simply by not acquiring more than a set amount of points per year (hell, in many cases if you do this they will give you points).
You are pattern matching to a straw-man version of a belief which is not even the one I was relying on.
All the relevant part of my argument requires is for
Taking an action (voting) to reduce the amount of money one person who is not you has (whether they be an ex-recipient of state funding or a new taxpayer) and increases the amount another has (whether they be an ex-taxpayer or a new recipient of spending)
to be more similar to
Taking an action (stealing and donating) to reduce the amount of money one person who is not you has (the victim) and increases the amount another has (the beneficiary of the charity)
than to
Taking an action (donating to charity) to reduce the amount of money you have and increases the amount another has (the beneficiary of the charity)
which is I think clearly true.
edit: formatting. Also I’m not American
It was indeed very strawman, of that I was aware. The strawman version is easier to get across and requires crossing less inferential distance in most cases I’ve experienced.
Thanks for straight-up telling me that I was pattern matching to the wrong belief. Upon reconsideration, this is clearly true. The grandparent deserves the downvotes.
I’ve never found that to be true. It’s an absence of evidence issue—if the best you can do is explain a faulty version of your opponent’s argument, maybe you can’t actually explain the real argument. Thus, there’s no reason to trust the accuracy of your explanation.
Hmm, that’s something I hadn’t considered. Yes, maybe the real factor was that I wasn’t explaining the real arguments as well, even after multiple attempts (which is probably because I don’t understand them well, if true, because the lack of this common cause would imply statistical weirdness and that I should expect my next attempt at explanation to go remarkably well, right?).