Taxpayers With Scalpels

Here's my comment on Kevin Vallier's entry on contractualism...

*******************

Nice write-up.  It's still not 100% clear to me but I'm getting there.  My favorite part of your post was the part about everybody and their moms.  My vote is for more informality in these blog entries...which is probably self evident from my own lack of formality.

Ok...so "justification".  Anybody ever watch the UK Office episode where David Brent is made redundant?  It's pretty awesome...which is why it really really sucks that there's no video clip to link to.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term...over there they say "you've been made redundant" instead of "you're fired".  In other words...there's no longer any justification for your employment with that firm.  Ah crap.

Justification goes along with the idea of "necessity".  In this discussion thread...good_in_theory brought up the pituitary gland and Gordon Sollars brought up how Washington's physicians bled him to death.  Is the pituitary gland necessary?  I'm pretty sure it is.  Is blood necessary?  Yeah...you gotta have enough blood.  Does it help for surgeons to know exactly which organs are necessary?  Yup

Unlike surgeons, congresspeople are not even required to have a high school diploma...though they all do.  Yet, just like surgeons...they are responsible for understanding the functions of every single part of the state.  Is congress itself truly necessary though?

What about the entire state?  Is it necessary?  In other words...is the state justified?  Well...Rothbard was certain that it wasn't.  In fact, if there was a button that would instantly abolish the state then he would have pushed that button until his thumb blistered.  Would you push that button?  Perhaps shemsky and 3cantuna would.

The state, like the human body, consists of multiple components that each serve a specific purpose.  This is the division of labor concept.  Unlike with the human body though...one person cannot truly comprehend the necessity of every single component of the state.  This is because what might be unnecessary for me might be necessary for you.

So the question is...why not just give each and every taxpayer their own scalpel?  Why not give them a button that they can push to deprive redundant government organizations of their own individual taxes?  Can you imagine 150 million taxpayers going after the state with scalpels?  For more info on this theory check out the Wikipedia entry on tax choice.

Another Milestone - Anti-Pragmatarianism Propaganda

It's another hard-times milestone!  But beggars can't be choosers...right?  Over on the Ron Paul forums I started this thread... Why Shouldn't the Government Engage in Aggression?  In that thread, noneedtoaggress shared the very first anti-pragmatarianism propaganda...

"Can't allocate taxes toward propaganda.  Forever Pragmatarian."

What do you think?  Not bad eh?  If this had been the olden days then a copy with the typo would have been priceless.  So much for the olden days.  Well...if you do print it out...feel free to mail it to me and I'll sign it for you.  You could sell it on ebay for at least $400 for sure.

The state would allow people to allocate their taxes to some type of propaganda.  Yeah...because who knows where advertisement ends and propaganda begins.

It was a good thing I saved the image because a second later he replaced it with this version...

"The State won't allow me to allocate taxes to propaganda.  Forever Pragmatarian."

You have my thumbs up to widely disseminate this anti-pragmatarian propaganda around the internet.

Now...stare at this propaganda and listen to Natural Anthem by the Postal Service.

Justification for Government

On Kent's "Hooligan Libertarian" Blog I was asked..."Do you have a justification for government?".  I'm guessing that the person who asked the question is an anarcho-capitalist so that's how I'll approach it.

The founder of anarcho-capitalism, Murray Rothbard, really hated the state.  He said if there was a button that would completely destroy all of government in an instant...then he would push that button until his thumb blistered.  If, after pushing that button, it turned out that a state was necessary…then what?  Do we just hit ctrl + z?

To his credit, Rothbard didn’t just hate the state because he hated paying taxes.  He wrote numerous books with detailed explanations how the free-market could provide all public goods better than the state.  Were his explanations any good?  Liberal academics didn’t think so…they were considerably more threatened by the limited government ideas of Robert Nozick.

If the free-market can provide all public goods better than the government can, then is government justified?  It’s a Catch 22 though because the only way we can truly know if government is redundant is by getting rid of government.  Most would agree this approach is too risky…and since we live in a democracy…we have to take the majority’s opinion into consideration.  

Rather than one button that would destroy government in one fell swoop…what if all tax payers had a button that when pushed would deprive redundant government organizations of their tax dollars?  This is the pragmatarian approach.

If a government organization is redundant…but none of your taxes fund its existence…is there any reason to hate that government organization?

I’d say that at least 99.9% of people think at least one government organization is absolutely necessary.  For you .1% of people that think otherwise…the solution is simply to work together to provide free-market alternatives to that one government organization.  

The more say people have how their taxes are spent the more justified a government is.  The American Revolution occurred because people were being taxed without representation.  

The current government is only partially justified because people only have a very imperfect say with regards to how their taxes are spent.  They lose their say if the person they vote for is not elected and there's no guarantee that a representative will accurately represent the interests of the people who voted for them.

Incidentally, in contrast to the anarcho-capitalist perspective of hating the state...Reason magazine shared five reasons why libertarians should love the state.  My favorite is number #4..."Government bashing alienates those you want to reach"...

Incessant government-bashing may make you feel good, but alienates most everybody who knows and loves a police officer, firefighter, teacher, social worker, anyone who has ever collected an unemployment check, and anyone who saw NASA put a man on the moon.