NO TAXES? WHAT ABOUT THE COMMONS!?!? —“Taxes are just the price for a commons.

NO TAXES? WHAT ABOUT THE COMMONS!?!?

—“Taxes are just the price for a commons.”—

No, that’s not the point. It’s that taxes instead of fees produce a moral hazard that disconnects the revenue from the services, and provides opportunity for the special interests, rent seeking, and corruption that evolve into the pervasive in any government of any size over some period of time.

The commons are important, and must be paid for. But the purpose of a legislature on behalf of a people, is to determine if they are, and those they represent, are willing to pay that fee for that commons whether material, service, or informational.

However, there will always be people seeking to take advantage of membership in a polity, and from the commons that a polity produces by its mere existence, by free riding on the commons produced by others.

As such people unwilling to contribute to the commons of course can be evicted from the polity for not doing so. That’s what criminals do. That’s what rent seeking and corruption do. That’s what free riders do.

The difficulty is in distributing those costs, and doing so by some means of proportionality that recognizes both the contributions and burdens of participation in a polity.

No free lunches. Sorry marxists and libertarians. 😉

Cheers
CD

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