Just to forestall any snap objections, I am not suggesting that “the government” or “the state” is the automatic go-to for all conflicts of interest.
For, we all know that even the most democratic governments can be highly unrepresentative, and exaggerate their claims to being democratic; even if there is a considerable element of historical and current truth in such claims.
No. All I am saying is: an infringement on liberty-in-the-abstract such as taxation (whether “high” or “any at all”) is not necessarily to be avoided or banned.
For, if that were the case, nothing could ever be accomplished by government at all; no matter what “size” the government is.
Hence, the idealistic notion of “it’s not the most perfect way of recognising liberty,” or “it’s deficient in terms of recognising liberty,” aims for perfection, and thus is the enemy of the good.
By the way, does that argument sound familiar? Hmm…
I will acknowledge briefly that I am not a legal scholar, and I don’t claim to know how questions of constitutionality in any particular country may (or may not) play into this topic.
But then, given the ahistorical and acontextual character of a significant proportion of libertarian thought, I don’t think that should bother some of you too much.
And yes, I admit to having my own bias, as a UK citizen. Still, I am not attempting to “lecture” any of the US citizens who read Glossy News. On the contrary, I am hoping to strike a chord here with readers from as wide an international audience as possible; inside and outside the US and UK. The internet is a big place.
So, while aspects of this essay may appear Westerncentric, I would hope that everyone feels free to take (and reject) whatever fits with their own individual context.
Oh, and one last barb: have you read “The Road to Serfdom” recently? Have a good look at what Friedrich Hayek actually thought about government involvement in the economy.
Yes. If you don’t know what he actually said on this topic, then your view of what Hayek really believed may actually be fairly similar to the straw-Hayek denounced by doctrinaire far-left ideologues, such as Trotskyites/Stalinists.
I’ll leave you with that comforting thought 😉