In 300 words or less...
The whole point of libertarianism is individual freedom.
The enemy of freedom is coercion. While criminals of all stripes and types use coercion to steal our freedom, the number one freedom-stealer is government.
Even the most-limited, least-interventionist, libertarian-friendliest government in history – the one created by representatives of thirteen previously subservient British colonies - required the coercion of taxes to make it go.
And don't think "Taxation is theft" is merely a libertarian bumper sticker. No amount of spin, slant, cant, .jpg)
parsing, philosophizing or any other wordplay can turn government-imposed taxation into a voluntary activity.
So the libertarian position on taxation is no taxes. Period.
Yet some libertarians champion a VAT tax or fair tax or flat tax or national sales tax or some other form of government theft. But that just means swapping one kind of theft for another.
The Libertarian Party platform calls for "the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service and all federal programs and services not required under the U.S. Constitution."
Harry Browne, LP presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000, campaigned to "end the Income Tax and replace it with nothing."
The premise of the Browne position and the LP platform is that something like 90% of what the federal government does today is unconstitutional, and that the abolition of the Sixteenth Amendment coupled with the constitutionally granted "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises..." is sufficient to support a Constitutionally limited and therefore legitimate government.
Anarchist libertarians, of course, consider the phrase "legitimate government" an oxymoron since all governments are based on coercion.
"Taxation is theft" is the only legitimate libertarian position. Anything less may be a step in the right direction, but still just a step.
Freedom and taxation are logical opposites.
Comments
I'm a little disappointed...it's the Constitution of the United States, not United States Constitution. I would have thought a Libertarian would have gotten that right! :-P (tongue-in-cheek)
The no taxation plank is a left over of the anrchist faction in the LP Platform. This part of the platform was designed to usher in anarchy by defunding governemtn, leaving the United States to exist in name only.
This plank was actually voted out a few years back but kept in by a miscount of votes. Although there was discovery of the miscount the anarchists had retained enough strength to keep the voted out plank in the Platform.
The Libertarian Party is in flux as an internal battle for control wages between the anarchist faction, in control since 1983, and the LRC, Libertarian Reform Caucus.
The full goals of the anarchist LP members is clear, the destruction of the
United States.
The goals of the LRC have not solidified even though they have made rapid and far reaching control of the LP. Once in control they removed from the lp.org website the old copies of the previous Platforms that the anarchists had adopted.
The Libertarians are in the process of change.
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