Penn Jillette:

It's amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness...

I don't believe the majority always knows what's best for everyone. The fact that the majority thinks they have a way to get something good does not give them the right to use force on the minority that don't want to pay for it...

This country used to be owned by a King. It was his property. The corporations were owned by him. The people rented his land. The taxes were his profits. Over time, repeatedly, a gun was put to his head, and his power became less absolute. His ownership became less absolute. Some of his money was spent in the public interest against his will. We gradually created a republican system of government wherein we had a say in how his money was spent. In the United States the King was eventually removed from the picture entirely.

What right had we to do that? The United States was his property! Removing it from him and giving it to the collective ownership of the citizenry was, clearly, bullying laziness... Why didn't we go out and get our own country if thats what we wanted?! What a bunch of jerks we are!

Wealthy people who argue that they owe absolutely nothing to the rest of society and should not have to pay taxes are, more or less, arguing that the King should still own everything and they ought to be his employee. Its a line of thinking that is ahistorical, selfish, childishness.

In the real world, people sometimes use force to take the things they need to survive. Poor people steal food to survive. If conditions are bad enough, they riot. If conditions are really bad, they overthrow the rulers and establish a new order. Gasp in disgust at it over your cup of tea if you want, but this is the world you live in and its ugly.

The system of government we have is a consequence of a thousand years of balancing the rights of kings against the rights of paupers. Radical oversimplifications that one side of this equation is always right are of no value and should not be taken seriously. What is important is that we've found a way to navigate the conflicts of interests between these groups through nonviolent processes like voting and constitutional rights, instead of through war.

Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It's just ganging up against the weird kid, and I'm always the weird kid.

I couldn't agree more, but no one has ever proposed that people have an individual right to not pay taxes.