Guinness wrote:I'm not sure I understand. I think it is correct to say that no one can force you to be a slave, so long as you value freedom over life. Practically, we make judgment calls about things like this all the time.
Yes this is what I am getting at. So you are free under any social system to do as you please anyways. It's just the consequences of your actions will be different. So while I agree that freedom of your person is inherent, I sometimes have a hard times seeing property rights the same way. Now I like property rights and believe in them but I just don't see them as an inherent right.
I view income taxation as unconstitutional and immoral
- This is your view, but it is the correct view? This is what I am getting at. I think that the unconstitutional part is correct but the immoral part is what I am interested in. Is it only immoral in the way you define terms or is it inherently immoral?
But I have no say in how my labor is translated into charity. My labor goes to fund two immoral and illegal wars... (I'm getting off track here) it's worse than that - I am funding the killing of other human beings. Government has put me in a position where I must choose between my morals and providing for my family. You know, that's not an exaggeration - the Federal government, for all intents and purposes, has a gun to my head, and asks me to choose. That's only the tip of the iceberg, really.
[/quote]I agree 100% with all of this. When I look at the federal government anymore, i just see a ticking time bomb. 500 billion here, a trillion there, all debt financed, added into the mix more wars and new entitlements, a huge trade deficit, etc. Our economic future is grim. Ending income taxation and the federal reserve would reduce the government to essential services and force them to live within a small budget. Of course it would also make the dollar highly inelastic and I really don't know what effect that would have. I imagine credit would be quite hard to come by then.