renner@uiucdcs.UUCP (01/30/85)
> Just how *is* taxation a restriction of one's freedom any different than > paying for bread in the grocery store? Certainly there is some diminution > of freedom in being excuded from the use of a piece of bread unless a > fee is paid. -- Tim Sevener (orb@whuxl) The difference, of course, is in the absence of coercion at the grocery store. If I don't like your store, I go to another. If nobody sells bread at a price I like, I can buy crackers instead, or grow food in my back yard and do without. No such option with government and taxation. I don't care for tobacco price supports -- but I have to pay for them anyway. Tim's difficulties stem from his definition of "freedom." To Tim, freedom means the ability to do anything one wants, or at least to do anything that any other person can do. This leads him into all sorts of silly conclusions -- like the one above: "the right to be free is the right to free bread at grocery stores; I am less free if I have to pay for it." As soon as Tim realizes that while equality of ability may be desireable, it is not essential to the concept of "freedom," a lot of his troubles will go away. Scott Renner {ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!renner