"Taxation is not a method of socialist redistribution — taxation is not any kind of theft or taking, not any kind of restriction of liberty, not any kind of charity.
Rather, taxation is the only mechanism society has to bill people for their use of the commons.
If you don’t bill for the use of the commons, then the commons is depleted with no way to replenish it.
The people who gain most from the use of the commons are precisely those who drain it the most, and therefore must be billed the most. Taxation is not an exact form of accounting, but it is a roughly equitable way to adjust gross income for repayment to and replenishment of the commons.
What is the commons? It is the cumulative assets of society. It is exactly everything in excess of what one person can create with her own hands — that is, everything above a cave, animal skins, foraged berries and stone tools.
All the rest of an individual’s wealth depends on the collective work of society.
The commons includes the obvious, like roads and bridges, armies and police forces, a system of currency, dams, waterworks, electrical grids, the internet.
And the commons includes the less obvious, like the accumulation and preservation of knowledge, the commercial networks that allow one to buy a plow or a car or a computer, the glue of language, the freedoms of religion and speech, the ability to draw on the work force, the use of communication avenues for advertising, the maintenance of a health system to keep the work force going and keep the population sane, the systems established to provide for the aged-out portion of the population until death. It also includes all the raw resources that exist below and above a nation: the minerals, the earth, the air, the water, and the animals that dwell therein.
When someone draws upon the assets of a society, she owes the society compensation for that draw. We call that 'taxation.' The more one draws upon social assets — the more 'money' that one 'makes' — the more one owes society in compensation. This is obviously and fundamentally fair, not a burden the weak impose on the strong. Society allows those who produce 'more' to be richer, but society has no obligation to permit anyone to use the commons without paying for it commensurately, and even progressively."
- ksmoore777, from "Taxation Is NOT 'Taking from the Rich to Pay for the Poor' — the Fundamental Equity of Taxation"
