Peter_Twieg comments on The Trouble With "Good" - Less Wrong

83 Post author: Yvain 17 April 2009 02:07AM

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Comment author: CronoDAS 17 April 2009 07:30:45AM 2 points [-]

Ask an anarchist. Taxation of X% means you're forced to work for X% of the year without getting paid. Therefore, since slavery is "being forced to work without pay" taxation is slavery. Since slavery is bad, taxation is bad. Therefore government is bad and statists are no better than slavemasters.4

Nitpick: Under most current systems of taxation, you choose how much to work, and then lose a certain percentage of your income to taxes. A slave does not have the power to choose how much (or whether) to work. This is generally considered a relevant difference between taxation and slavery.

Comment author: Peter_Twieg 17 April 2009 02:43:18PM 0 points [-]

So if the slave were allowed to choose his own level of effort, he would no longer be a slave?

I think you have a point with what you're saying (and I'm predisposed against believing that the taxation/slavery analogy has meaning), but I don't think being a slave is incompatible with some autonomy.

Comment author: CronoDAS 17 April 2009 07:42:21PM *  4 points [-]

I think we'd better kill this discussion before it turns into an "is it a blegg or rube" debate. - the original anarchist's argument falls into at least one of the fallacies on that page, and I suspect my nitpick might do so as well.

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