Taxes:
Do We Have A Moral Obligation To Pay Them?

The government does not waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the roadside, and holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery ... and it is far more dastardly and shameful ... The highway man takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber.
- Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority, 1870

THE DILEMMA

According to recent polls, as the Canadian tax burden rises, more and more Canadians are willing to "cheat" on their taxes. No wonder. Taxes are up 1,286% since 1961 while average prices have only gone up 480% and our incomes only 900%. Government studies show that any pay raise in the last ten years has been more than bested by tax increases. We are being squeezed and squeezed dry and we don't want to pay any more.

But calling Canadians tax "cheats" implies that we SHOULD be paying our taxes. But why? Where did this obligation come from? Let's pick apart some of the arguments.

1. It is our duty. We are the product of our community and owe compensation to our community.

Most of us do feel obligations towards those who have helped us. But government is wrong to claim credit for all the good work accomplished by voluntary social institutions in our communities. It usurps the warm feeling we have for each other and tries to use this good will to force us to pay for services that we don't want. A civilized community is one where we help each other voluntarily. It is one in which we have the freedom to pursue our own interests ... not one in which we are forced to pay for each other's special projects.

2. We live in a democracy and the majority says we must.

Remember your mother's warning about peer pressure? "If everyone wants to jump off a bridge ..." Shouldn't adult Canadian taxpayers know better by now? Having lots of people on one side of an issue does not turn a wrong into a right.

When we were young, we also learned that it was wrong to take other children's toys without their permission. It didn't matter how many children wanted the other child's toys. Did your mother tell you that if a large enough gang of children voted to share the toys that this made stealing OK? So how big of a majority does it take to turn an unethical theft by a gang into an ethical democratic tax raise?

3. You use government services so you should pay for them.

Honest people pay their debts and fulfill their promises. And nothing is free. The services that government provides (roads, water, schools, hospitals etc.,) are sometimes valuable to us. But why do we have to pay for these services with taxes? Aren't there better ways?

Imagine the reaction at your local grocery store if your food bill was based on your income or the value of your house instead of the food you selected. Divorcing the cost of the service from your obligation to pay would make you act the same way that rational taxpayers are being led to act in Canada today. We demand Cadillac services and get angry when our politicians can't deliver them on a Hyundai budget. The politicians that succeed in this atmosphere of general dishonesty are rarely the most truthful. Why be mad at them? This is the game we're forcing them to play.

Fortunately, there is a way out. We must learn to reconnect the cost of providing public services with the price we are willing to pay for them. We must restrain compulsive taxation and replace it with the ethical principle of "user pays" - paying directly for services we use and not into a general pot for the politicians to divvy up.

Along with this principle, we must allow people with new ideas more freedom to try to provide public services. (This is called competition). We must reduce the red tape and bureaucracy which stifles innovation. (This is called deregulation). And we must let the voluntary sectors of our economy help. (This is called privatization).

4. You have an obligation to pay more because you have more.

This is no ethical principle. This is nothing more than ENVY. We don't redistribute health, IQ or sex-appeal, so why money? People make choices in life and differing levels of wealth is one of the outcomes of our different choices. We don't punish others for their excess health so why punish those who have the ability to earn more?

Much envy comes from the false view that life is a fixed pie in which my larger piece means you have a smaller piece. But allowing those who are good at wealth creation the freedom to keep what they earn doesn't reduce opportunities for the rest of us. Instead it enlarges the pie. It allows the emergence of a prosperous economy in which greater wealth is possible for more of us. We should not let envy of success create taxes that stop innovators from making the breakthroughs that will make all our lives more prosperous.

Also, be wary of discussions about taxes which contain the word "fair". A favourite ploy of the "tax eaters" is to divert attention by attempting to fool us into thinking we can get a free lunch by shifting the tax burden onto someone else. The usually mentioned scapegoats are the rich, the corporations or foreigners. But realistically, most Canadian wealth resides with the average taxpayer. While we waste our time chasing the chimera of fairness in which everyone is trying to get someone else to pay their bills, the tax plunders continue their merry confiscation of our life energy.

SO WHAT TO DO?

STEP ONE: Make a mental change

Reacquaint yourself with the notion that this is YOUR life and you are entitled to keep what you earn. Ignore the blather of the special pleaders who call you selfish for not wanting to pay more. They are just as selfish except unlike them, we are earning our own living and not trying to live off of them while they are trying to live off of us.

STEP TWO: Complain

Write to your newspapers, your MP, MLA and anyone else you can think of. Support tax-fighting groups who will do this for you. Politicians may be hard of hearing but squeaky wheels get attention. Tell everyone you can think of that you no longer believe taxation is justified.

Be careful to do this in a responsible manner. There is no free lunch, so don't compromise your stand on taxes by asking for government handouts. Reduced taxes also means reduced government spending even on projects you like. But with your increased wealth you'll be much better off paying for these projects by yourself. All we want is the freedom to be responsible for our own spending.

STEP THREE: Arm yourselves with facts and arguments.

There are many ways to reduce the cost of government programs but we have to learn to fight the special interest groups. We can get better, more appropriate services at lower cost (and lower taxes) if we find out how other jurisdictions have successfully privatized government services. Some examples of success? Electricity, forests, fisheries, pensions, postal service, roads, health insurance, libraries, fire protection and many more.

FINDING OUT MORE

Read David Boaz, Libertarianism: A Primer (1997) or David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom; Guide to a Radical Capitalism (1989). You can find more material at www.free-market.net. Also, contact your local libertarian group for discussions, reading lists and more detailed arguments favouring voluntary alternatives to coercive government failure.