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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 |