Extortion is a crime in the legal sense because the legislature defined certain acts or ways of acting as extortion and outlawed them.
If there was no such law you could still refer to an act as extortion, even if it wouldn't be illegal. Taking something of value not due through the use of force or the threat of force is extortion even if it isn't illegal force.
The question than becomes is the money the government wants from us due? Again in a technical legal sense it is. The government passed a law saying that we owe X% of our income in taxes, and many other laws saying that we owe taxes on other things in other situations. But I don't think the government has a fundamental right to our income or wealth.
You'd rather not pay for food, clothing, shelter, etc., but nobody is going to give it to you for free.
But no one comes to me and says "here is your food, clothing, shelter, etc." and than bills me, unless I ordered or otherwise contracted for the food, clothing, shelter, etc.
Tim |
