(urth) Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again)

[Adam Thornton]

On May 19, 2009, at 2:27 PM, brunians at brunians.org wrote:
> Please do explain how consensual taxation works: I am all ears.

This one's easy.

The government provides services I find beneficial, such as police and  
fire protection, maintained roads, public education, and so forth.

On balance, the amount I'm paying for those services seems broadly  
fair.  Sure, there are inefficiences--waste, corruption, places money  
is spent where I think it shouldn't be and things that don't get  
funded that I think should be--but I am much more in favor of it than  
I would be of a zero-taxation Hobbesian war of all against all.  I  
lack the ruthlessness (not to mention physical conditioning) necessary  
to survive for long in *that* world.

Therefore, taxation is, at least for me, consensual.  Sure, that  
doesn't mean I don't think it can improve--that's why I vote on local  
taxation-related ballot initiatives, for instance--but it represents  
something much closer to my ideal state than its absence would.

Adam