Tags: #taxes #government #public-goods Type: #notes Stage: #budding --- A lot of people have the idea that the government has no entitlement to any portion of people's earnings and wealth, so taxation is effectively a form of theft. It's worthing mentioning here that by government, we actually mean society. Government is not separate from society, ideally, is the governing extension a society. Here are some reasons I think taxation is not theft: - We aren't solely responsible for the wealth that we generate so we don't have a strong claim to keeping all of it. - Our capacity to generate wealth is dependent upon a number of factors that are completely outside of our control. We don't choose where we're born, which sort of societies we're born into, what sort of looks, talents, and capabilities we're born with. All of this is entirely due to chance. - [[Luck plays a far greater role in wealth generation than most people believe.]] If someone gets lucky and garners a lot of wealth as a result, it's hard to argue that they deserve it so some level of redistribution via taxation is warranted. - The total value governments provide people via public goods is greater than they'd ever be able to provision themselves, something true even for billionaires. - Redistributing wealth to those that need it more is within our own interests. (See [[A Selfish & Computational Justification for Global Wealth Redistribution]]) Steve Jobs wrote something that captures some of this in an email he sent to himself: ![[steve jobs email on what he did not do.png]] ## References Some of my opinions are informed by the book ['The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice'](https://academic.oup.com/book/5300)