Binary Intervention: Taxation II

[Topic at 7 min.]

Progressive, proportional and regressive taxes. Rothbard is relentlessly not in favor of taxes. The state robs both rich and poor. Henry George is horrible on the single tax on ground rent. Immigration/ Georgist sidebar - privatize everything so that entrants are trespassers or invitees. Empty land could still attract immigrants.

Just taxation? The just price is the market price. There can’t be a just tax. It is not voluntary.

Costs of collection, convenience, and certainty? Milton Friedman came up with the withholding tax, unfortunately making taxation seem painless.

Distribution of the tax burden. Equal treatment would mean equal slavery, because taxation is theft. Extend the exemptions to all. The loopholer is a good guy. Bureaucrats cannot pay taxes because they’re part of the criminal gang.

Ability to pay?That’s the sacrifice theory.

Head tax seemed rational, yet is still bad. Rejects the benefit principle. But, the market benefits the poor more than the rich. All taxes are for revenue.

The voluntary tax is not sufficient for free enterprise because the state still has the monopoly on taxation.

An Alice J. Lillie Seminar. This lecture covers pp. 1191-1251 in the Scholar’s Edition of Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State.