Murray N. Rothbard was born on March 2, 1926. His simple concept: “Taxation is Theft” is
devastating to the legitimacy of government.
Those 3 little words are part of this larger passage “Taxation is theft,
purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which
no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of
the property of the State’s inhabitants, or subjects.” from his book “The Ethics
of Liberty” published in 1982.
Here are a few quotes from Murray's life work:
“Libertarianism holds that the only proper role of violence is to defend person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal”
“It is curious that people tend to regard government as a quasi-divine, selfless, Santa Claus organization. Government was constructed neither for ability nor for the exercise of loving care; government was built for the use of force and for necessarily demagogic appeals for votes. If individuals do not know their own interests in many cases, they are free to turn to private experts for guidance. It is absurd to say that they will be served better by a coercive, demagogic apparatus.”
“War is Mass Murder, Conscription is Slavery, Taxation is Robbery.”
“It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.”
“It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.”
“To be moral, an act must be free.”
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