testa-j%osu-20@OHIO-STATE.ARPA (08/05/86)
Keith F. Lynch writes: > Remeber that governments can't really provide anything. No >government has anything to provide. What governments CAN do is take >things from some individuals and give them to others. No government >can make the world a better place, all they can do is redistribute >what's already there. I don't know about this -- i thought i remember you stating earlier (though it could have been someone else) that the libertarians believe that one of the functions of government should be to prevent people from infringing on other people's rights. Well, to do this, a government has to provide some sort of judicial system, since not all members of the society will voluntarily respect each others rights. This is bound to make (at least part of) the world a better place. Then there is the question of how one manages to establish this judicial system. It will take money. But, you object to taxation as "robbery". But where should the government get the money to fund a judicial system? Certainly the concept of "user's fees" cannot apply here, since justice should be available to everyone, not just those with money. Is it not reasonable that, in exchange for a justice system designed to protect everyone, that some form of taxation be used to support it? I just got in in the middle of this doscussion, so i apologize if i'm repeating something discussed earlier. -joe testa testa-j%osu-20@ohio-state.arpa ------- -------