Taxes

If some mugger comes up to you, shoves a gun in your face and demands money, that is wrong. If a government demands money from you, and you refuse to pay, what happens next? The government will raise the stakes. First will come threats. Then government will begin trying to take things from you by force of "law". If you keep resisting at each step of the process, there will come a time when government agents will come to your house with guns drawn to arrest you. Resist at this point, and they will kill you. How is this any different than the mugger? Morally, it is not any different. "Pay us or we will kill you" is the implied threat that keeps most Americans paying taxes of one form or another. Name one government program that is worth killing for. If you can, I would need to be convinced.

It really doesn't matter how many "laws" are passed to authorize this tax or that. Governments could pass laws allowing all people with red hair to be burned at the stake, but it would still be wrong. Theft is wrong; taxes are theft-by-government; taxes are wrong. So, how would government programs be paid for? First off, I will say I do not believe government should administer ANY programs, but for the sake of argument we will pretend. User fees would be a much more fair way to pay for the programs. If you refuse all dealings with government, you would not pay fees to support government. Remember: government programs are never really free. You pay for them, and pay much more than you would for the same "service" if it were provided by a private company or individual.

Follow your conscience where taxes are concerned, but if you don't pay up, do not be surprised when government throws everything it has into bringing you down. Judges know where their paychecks come from, so will rarely do what is right in these cases.