Liberal thought

[Jeremy1952]

Doc TiessenQuote:. . .in an economic system in which there is no private property, taxes are not necessary. This is the case in Comunism. . .A government can exist without tax dollars... what cannot exist is private property and a capitalistic system without tax dollars.Essentially communism is capitalism with taxes set at 100%. One way or another, the government has to get resources from the populace to do the things it does. The communist system is, "take everything, keep what you want, give back the rest". Pure capitalism, in all its ugly, destructive viciousness, is actually a natural part of human nature. We want to own "stuff" so we can do better than our neighbor and so that we can pass it on to our children. The capitalism, communism, and libertarianism that we are discussing are different approaches to ameliorating the evil inherent in unfettered capitalism.There is no such thing as "without private property", and citizens need protection whether they own the means of production or not. You may or may not own your house under communism; what you cannot own by definition is a business. You do own your clothes regardless. There are functions that any government must perform to have a civilized society, such as building roads, enforcing laws, and protecting borders. These require money in one form or another. If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984