Fuuuuuuuuck!

[dalebert]

Rage guy (Fuuuuuu)

[liberaunchy]

I hope I'm not being too forward and not entering where I'm not welcome.

But how would the minimal coercion argument proceed from the Free state project?

By that, I mean a minimally coercive state, a volunteer society.

And being an ultra fiscal conservative, I do mean minimal.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

So I had this exchange with a friend of mine who's a British Socialist.

On the heels of my videos, comes this story.

France plans to raise the taxes on the rich to 75%

Used to be over 80% in this country I believe. And those French millionaires are bluffing- either they're public spirited good citizens, in which case they'll grumble and pay up, or they're not, in which case any taxation is too much and they'll already have hidden their wealth away overseas. It's like those celebrities who say they'll emigrate if X is elected to office- they seldom do, even when you might want them to.

I don't understand, you think it's a good thing that someone has 75% of their wealth stolen from them?

They'll leave, it happens here in the US all the time. States like Maryland and New York have seen an exodus of millionaires because of punitive tax measures. If you're losing 75% of your wealth, there is no incentive to work for it anymore. So, either they'll leave or just close up shop and more people will be out of work.

Just because they haven't left yet, doesn't mean they wont in the future.   

It is maddening.

Ha! It sounds a lot like the arguments I have with one of my friends. This friend is usually very logical and claims to despise authoritarian bull shit and hates the TSA. Unfortunately he's also a raging liberal. Anyway, I tried using the 'taxation is akin to slavery' argument with him and he delved into arguments from emotion. He tried to claim that I didn't care enough about 'real slaves' (chattel slaves) and how it's demeaning to call taxes slavery. After I explained the idea of degrees of slavery ie, multiple people owning a percentage of you, his response was 'Well, I don't know anyone who feels enslaved.' I just let it go at the time but wished I'd said, 'I don't know anyone who feels like they're standing on a giant ball hurtling through space at 600,000 miles per hour but that doesn't make it's not so.'

Thats because your argument that "taxation is slavery" sucked. An argument shouldn't highlight ideological differences, it should get him to agree with you. You should have said that as long as big government is supported by the left and right, we will lose civil liberties.