If you acquiesce in the social compromise of your freedom, you have "signed the contract". If you do not, society is within its rights to consider you an outlaw, and protect itself.
There is no sense in calling a reasonable trade- off a "necessary evil". Do you feel you have been cheated every time you pay a bill? Of course not, only when you think that you were forced or deceived into paying an exorbitant price do you get angry, even if you somehow come out ahead. Well, I would suggest that we should be happy to relinquish some portion of our freedom to live in society, and that we should be equally cheerful in paying our taxes in the abstract---- in other words, if there is a fault, it is that they are too high, not that they exist. In each case, society, through its institutions, assesses you something (restrictions on perfect freedom, some amount of property) for the opportunity to participate and enjoy its benefits. I don't know about you, but I am very happy to be in this society, and to live under this government, and so I do not feel screwed.
By the way, the government is charging for its services, including the insurance benefit of having the police on call, or the courts available, or zoning boards to make sure that development does not harm property values, the military, etc. The way the price is determined is through the legislature (city council, state, or Congress). One is not allowed to be a free rider, as an equity issue, because there are too many things we all benefit from, like keeping the crime rate down or containing fires.......... |
