"If you don't like taxes, leave society!"

"Voluntary funding of roads, firefighting, and police"

Script

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Coercive taxation should be abolished. It’s immoral to forcibly take people’s wealth.

When I say this to people, they often say something like:

“If you don’t want to pay taxes, don’t be part of society and take advantage of its benefits. Go live off the grid. Go live in a forest. Find a plot of land in the wilderness and live by yourself. Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society”

To that my answer is: A civilized society does not force its own citizens. Force is brutish and *un*civilized. It’s the way of animals, not humans. Humans are beings of reason, and they should deal with each other by rational persuasion, not coercion. That’s the civilized way.

It’s a false alternative to think that one must either accept taxes—or else live in isolation. There’s another option. One can live in society, but advocate for changing it. That’s what abolitionists did in the nineteenth-century. Their options weren’t to just accept slavery or abandon the country. They could also stay in the country but try to change it from within, to make it better. And that’s what I’m doing with regard to taxation (and much else).

To abandon American society now because of some problems is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The benefits of living in society still far outweigh the costs, so I stay. But I think the benefits can still be had—and greatly increased—if we abolish coercive taxation.

If you don’t see how things like roads, firefighting, and police could exist without coercive taxation, I have another video that addresses exactly that. Check it out at the link below, and I’ll see you in my next video.

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"Abstract Blurred Lights Bokeh Background" in outro slide thanks to Free B Roll by Videezy.com.

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