Quote from: BlackHatCoiner on June 25, 2024, 06:35:17 PM

Morals talking time.

Surely a matter of topic that has concerned many philosophers and intellectuals. I imagine most of (genuine) Bitcoiners be like "back-to-the-landers", libertarians, with desire to be self-sufficient. However, objectively speaking, taxation is theft. It's taking someone's property without their consent, and it is compulsory. It very much fits the definition of theft, even though you can find it slightly altered in other sources, like the Cambridge dictionary ("the crime of illegally taking something that belongs to someone else")

(That's right dear reader, that was a clickbait!)

The question is rather: Is taxation justifiable theft? A necessary evil? Libertarians tend to argue that it's wrong regardless the intentions. Taking someone's property without their permission is unethical, no matter how good you want to do with it. Others, who support social contract theory, argue that it's necessary and should be seen as "voluntary obligation".

There is no right or wrong answer (un)fortunately. Feel free to speak out loud.

My stance on this is that both "groups" bring some compelling arguments on the table, in favor of their ideology. I don't know. I think there's a place where we draw the line. For example, nowadays, I think we've crossed that line (towards more government of course). I don't think we need that much government into the markets.

I also feel really stupid when I see politicians talking about taxing gains from cryptocurrencies, with phrases like "unhosted wallets", or by attacking privacy services. They talk as if privacy invasion is a requirement, or "obligation" as per the social contract theory. I think this really crosses the line.

In order to justify libertarians you need to make the following statement change.

"if you divide the planet earth fresh water land and oceans in equal shares

we would get 1/3 of an acre of fresh water
4 acres of land
12 acres of ocean"

and the place won't work that way.

So we

1)either kill off 95 maybe 98 percent of the people.
Thus allowing the remaining ones to live free.
2)make space travel work easy peasy finding tons of resources and space which allow the current 8 billion of us to live free.
3) use taxes and caste system to keep the status quo.

Right now we do number 3

number 1 is a pretty fucking terrible choice. no good at all

number 2 seems impossible at the moment.

So taxes are not criminal due to the three choices above.

taxes still seem to be a necessary evil. not a criminal evil.

number 1 which actually could work and end taxes would be criminal

and number 2 still seems to be beyond us.

I like libertarian thought but we simply do not have the room or resources for a lot of them on this planet.