Legal theft?
Published by Yazad Jal October 19th, 2004 in Economics, GovernanceI go to visit a friend in a nearby town. I buy some stuff from him. I meet some of his friends and buy some stuff from them also. Happy with my trip and my purchases, I return home.
As I am about to enter my house, a highwayman stops me and asks me for a share of the goods. I refuse. He kidnaps me and now will not let me go unless I give him a higher proportion of the stuff than was earlier asked. Worse, there is a chance that he might keep it all and let me rot in his dungeon.
Is this story very different from what is happening here?
I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean, Yazad. Are you saying that customs duty itself shouldn’t be levied?
I only know what is written in the linked article, but Rs. 50 Lakhs seems to be far more than a few things for friend and family.
This exactly was my point all along.
All the Govt Sponsored programs that aim to provide for the poor are exactly that - “THEFT”.
An individual is not allowed to come in to my apartment and take money away for his Hospital expenses, then why does the govt do that on his behalf by taxing me and providing him with free Healthcare?
Taxation for most part is authorized theft.
MadMan, does magnitude make such a difference? What if he had got stuff worth 1 lakh? Rs. 20,000?
Yes, I am questioning the very concept of customs duty. I’m looking for coherent reasons to have it which are consistent with the principles of liberty.
in my new book, antidote2 (macmillan), there is a short and sweet article entitled ‘abolish the customs department’. do read it and if you can, do me the honour of reviewing the book.
I thought libertarians were supposed to keep in mind the context of property rights when analyzing any situation. In this case, the person was driving on the roads owned by the Govt. Your personal liberty makes sense only on your own property.
If it had been a privately owned road (say toll road), would it be okay for the owner to charge a tax or fee? Then why can’t Govt. do the same?
I don’t have any problems with the Customs duty or any tax at all. The problem I have is with the Govt. ownership itself. Not only Govt. owns all the current roads it does not even allow private roads to be built without its permission. That’s the key issue here!
Ashish, I agree with you that the main problem is govt itself.
I only wanted to show the similarities between an extortionist and the govt. It’s not the same thing (at least the govt. pretends it is doing things for your benefit!).
BTW, if a criminal gang had control of the territory you were living in, would you pay the “taxes” they demanded?
If a criminal gang has control of the terrority I would pay the taxes to save my life but I won’t consider it legitimate.
However, you missed my point about Govt. It is not that Govt. pretends to act in our benefit but many time it does. To give few examples, most likely the Govt. must have built the highway or road. It polices the highway to make sure traffic rules are followed. It maintains the road. A criminal gang will not do that.
There is a difference between simply asking for extortion money because you have occupation of a territory and actually owning the property and demanding for the usage fees or taxes.
That’s why if you want to contest whether Govt. ownership is itself good then I am with you!
If customs duty is wrong, then all kinds of tax has to be wrong. If somebody takes that stand that is OK. You cant discriminate on what tax is correct and what is not.
Ashish is totally wrong. Customs duty is not a toll. Govt doesnt own a country so that it can claim a private property right on the country and can charge toll on the people who enter into the country.
Finally what is a Govt? In democracy it is an entity which is build by the people. It might have violated for the people motto mostly because of the representatives who are corrupt. But can any country or a collection of people can say they can live without such entity?
Chok, it’s possible to have some taxes that are fairer than others. Of course I think that all taxes are “theft”, but that does not mean that all taxes are alike. Even for me, there are some that I can tolerate more than others.
Yes, I agree Ashish is wrong and I’ve said so on his post!
Your question “But can any country or a collection of people can say they can live without such entity [govt]?” is the crux of anarcho capitalist thought. My simple answer is yes. Of course, this question has led to loads of debate.