> Taxation is theft, but the current Republican party (including Sen. Hatch) has used that as an excuse to push an agenda that works against those who are barely getting by, while working for those who have inherited obscene amounts of wealth. That, in my opinion, is worse than the theft itself.
I don't understand how you can hold this view in light of what you said before that paragraph. How do you suppose we come up with creative solutions to social problems, and of helping the destitute and others, without any wealth or income? Our taxes are what fund those programs.
I believe taxation is theft, but that that fact is no excuse for allocating spending of tax dollars unwisely.
What the Republican Party, and many Libertarians seem to think is that because taxation is theft, anything that depends on taxation is immoral, and therefore taxes are free to be allocated immorally. That conclusion is fallacious, absurd, and malicious.
You can disagree with me on the fine point of taxes being immoral in the first place, but that is precisely not my point.
> I believe taxation is theft, but that that fact is no excuse for allocating spending of tax dollars unwisely.
So your position is: Oh its stealing money, but lets spend the stolen money better?
> What the Republican Party, and many Libertarians seem to think is that because taxation is theft, anything that depends on taxation is immoral, and therefore taxes are free to be allocated immorally. That conclusion is fallacious, absurd, and malicious.
No they don't. Its a talking point that they've conveniently latched on to since you need to have a reason for doing the terrible things that they do without admitting it explicitly. I'll give them credit for exploiting the worst parts of individualism in the US to convince many (seemingly you included) of the "evil of taxation and government". But it is not an ideology that they believe in. Nor, I will point out, are any of their solutions backed by any kind of experience or evidence.
> So your position is: Oh its stealing money, but lets spend the stolen money better?
So your position is: If I find the source (taxation) to be unethical, I am not allowed to have any opinion on spending?
My point is that that is absurd.
> But it is not an ideology that they believe in
That is my point: It's a vain representation of ideology that is used as an excuse. You don't need to fight the ideology itself to understand that.
Rather than freaking out every time you read the phase "taxation is theft", maybe you could actually read what I am saying, and understand that we are in violent agreement on every other point.
I don't understand how you can hold this view in light of what you said before that paragraph. How do you suppose we come up with creative solutions to social problems, and of helping the destitute and others, without any wealth or income? Our taxes are what fund those programs.