Taxation is not theft

Note: This blog post has been retracted, since I no longer think of it as a good representation of how I think about its topic. I may, or may not, have written a better post about the same topic since; check the full list of posts.[4]

I used to be inclined towards libertarianism. I still really like libertarians. I don’t know whether I ever called myself a libertarian, but anyway, now I definitely don’t, and can’t.

In the United States, often libertarian is used to mean anyone who is in favor of a largely free market. I don’t mean something as general as that by the word, since I think it is not helpful to use it this way, and it is not how it is used here in Brazil. I think a libertarian is someone who believes in some form of libertarian ethics, holding to something like the non-agression principle, or self-ownership,[2] or however they slice it. This means they are almost always anarcho-capitalists, but that word approaches them more from the political than the ethical angle, which is the one intended here. There are different versions of libertarian ethics, but they are all very similar and I don’t care enough to distinguish them. All of them have in common the doctrine that taxation is theft.

I cannot believe that taxation is theft, because I am a Catholic, and such a doctrine would be against the constant teaching and practice of the Catholic Church, of her popes, and would even seem to be inconsistent with the existence of canonized royalty.

So, why is it that taxation is not theft?[1] Well, because state authority exists, of course. How does that work?

To be honest, I have no idea. I know God grants authority to governments in some way, and that He does so in such a way that most governments right now are probably legitimate,[3] since it seems that this is the general assumption of how the Church operates. But I have no sophisticated theology or philosophy of this; so, as far as I currently know, authority is very much what libertarians think it is – some magic hidden property of governments that makes taxation not be theft. That seems pretty reasonable to me.

[1] The naïve will dismiss the question, because taxation seems less grossly violent than theft, and it is at least partly used to the benefit of society. These are not serious considerations – taxation is physically the same act as theft, and its usage cannot justify it any more than the usage of the products of theft. Something like authority is necessary to change its nature from that of theft to that of a permissible act, whether it is held to exist because of a social contract or some other nonsense.

I believe that the “magic” theory is much more plausible than the “social contract” theory, though it is woefully unsophisticated in comparison, and I hope to replace it with something more philosophical someday, after I read more on the subject.

[2] Update (2022-02-10): I have come to believe in a form of self-ownership myself, though without becoming a libertarian. See my post on private property to learn more.

[3] Update (2022-02-10): Because of recent papal statements, have changed my mind on the legitimacy of states.

[4] Update (2022-05-04): Retracted the post; at this time, I would point readers to my post on human nature.