[pbsurf]

I'd like to see all taxes replaced by a wealth "tax" in the form of a voluntary--not coerced--payment to the state for the service of recognizing and protecting one's ownership of a piece of property. Payment would be encouraged by the fact that if an individual failed to pay the tax for some property, someone else could take it from them, pay the tax, and become the legally recognized owner, leaving the original possessor with no legal recourse.

[adwf]

Ah, the good old days of feudalism. When the only rich people were the ones with private soldiery to protect their assets. Everyone was better off when we all had our freedom, eh? Or at least, some people were better off, the vast majority died in squalor, unable to protect what was theirs from the local tyrant/"noble".

To provide a counterpoint: We already exist in the society you describe. You can choose to not pay your taxes and the government won't protect your assets from being seized. Now logically, under your system the person with the greatest military might would be able to seize your assets and defend them him/herself (or pay taxes). However, as the entity with the biggest military might will always be the government, ipso facto we have exactly the same situation as we do under the current law, where the government will start seizing assets if you don't pay your taxes...

The only alternative in a might-makes-right kind of libertarian society, is that individual entities (rich people/corporations/etc) start gathering enough military might to challenge the government and hence keep their tax money to themselves.

So best case scenario, we end up with a detente where the government and the hypothetical powerful force agree not to fight. Due to economies of scale, I'd be willing to bet that the cost of maintaining such a force is waaayyyy more than any taxes levied. Given that this force also gives the owner the ability to tell the government to go away, they'll have effectively declared independence and started their own little dictatorship (whether corporate or otherwise). The only difference is that nobody gets to vote for the new corporate overlords. They just have to obey or leave (until there's nowhere to flee to). This kind of libertarianism is better called neo-feudalism.

Worst case scenario, we have regular open warfare in our own back yards. What a great society to live in, where we're all just trying to stab each other in the back. Progress and civilization indeed...

Therefore the right of the government to enforce taxation for the betterment of society as a whole is absolutely essential to having a "civilization" at all. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

/rant over :p

[EpicEng]

And you see no coercion in this ill-conceived scheme? "This tax is 'voluntary', but if you don't pay it someone will certainly come along and take your property from you." What world do you live in exactly?

[zanny]

That kind of concept would work with enough mobility to just leave states you disapprove of. I like to think a huge amount of political inertia in the last 30 years has been due to the lack of any new frontiers to settle. And it is hard to voluntarily withdraw from a state if that also means you have to somehow get accepted into another one, since almost every square inch of habitable land on Earth is state controlled, even Antarctica.

[mixmastamyk]

This is similar to Henry George's philosophy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism

There's a foundation of some sort in San Francisco that introduced it to me. It's a quite interesting idea. The TLDR is capitalism for what you produce, and socialism for natural resources.

I'd like to see it tried out somewhere if it hasn't been already.

[stormbrew]

So you literally want to make rent-seeking the main means of accumulating wealth?

This is a very strange economic theory you've got going here.

[dllthomas]

This comment would benefit from some elaboration (perhaps in place of some snark).