History Forum / General / British History / February 2004

Let me be more explicit.

It is true that the theory of our Constitution is, that all taxes are
paid voluntarily; that our government is a mutual insurance company,
voluntarily entered into by the people with each other; that that each
man makes a free and purely voluntary contract with all others who are
parties to the Constitution, to pay so much money for so much protection,
the same as he does with any other insurance company; and that he is just
as free not to be protected, and not to pay tax, as he is to pay a tax,
and be protected.
But this theory of our government is wholly different from the practical
fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man:
Your money, or your life." And many, if not most, taxes are paid under
the compulsion of that threat.

The government does not, indeed, 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 on that
account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.

The highwayman 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. He has not acquired impudence
enough to profess to be merely a "protector," and that he takes men's
money against their will, merely to enable him to "protect" those
infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or
do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection.

He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these. Furthermore,
having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does
not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to
be your rightful "sovereign," on account of the "protection" he affords
you.

He does not keep "protecting" you, by commanding you to bow down and
serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by
robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest or
pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an
enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you
dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of a
gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as
these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make
you either his dupe or his slave.

Lysander Spooner
No Treason. No. VI, The Constitution of No Authority.  (1870).

EVIDENCE PLEASE

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer