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Tax-Free Society - Introduction - 02/09/2009

On the Libertarian Solution Radio Program, in my campaign newsletter, and in various other places, I and other libertarians often talk about the idea of taxation as theft (I would recommend reading here and here, if you have not already done so, before proceeding).  As the question goes at the end of the second article linked above, "but how do we pay for X?"  It is the intention of this multi-part series of articles to answer that question.

Libertarians realize that the market serves need better than government does.  We can look at services provided by government (Education, the Post Office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, etc) and compare those to services provided by the market (Technology, Food, Clothing, etc), and to even the most casual observer it becomes obvious that everything originates from and is served better by the market.  That being the case, libertarians wish to turn over most or all other services to the market, opening them up for competition and therefore improvement and lower costs.  Because of this, most answers to "how do we pay for X?" are in the form of a speculative business plan, and are not necessarily "the way" it would work if government left the picture in a certain area.

Take, for instance, the first flight by the Wright Brothers.  If someone had asked, "How will this be used commercially?  How many planes will there be?  Will people eat and watch movies on planes?  Will there be people on board to serve them?  How many?"  It would have been impossible to answer these detailed questions.  Nonetheless, there was a demand for air travel, so the market met that demand.  Enough people wanted to be able to eat meals on long flights, so it happened, without government mandates, because customers wanted it.

In 1947, computer engineer Howard Aiken made the prediction, "USA will need in the future at most 6 computers!"  We seem to have a magnificent ability to underestimate the power of the market.

Because libertarians don't want to control the lives of others (and this is why I believe there are many people who are truly libertarian, even though they may not self-identify as such), we don't want to implement a one-size-fits-all solution.  When I suggest how it would work in the absence of taxation, it's only one example of how it can work to illustrate that it is possible, and that it will work without the aggression of taxation.