For example, you have no such evidence of your right to take any man's property for the support of your government, as would be required of you, if you were to claim pay for a single day's honest labor.
Lysander Spooner: “For example, you have no such evidence of your right to take any man's property for the support of your government, as…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner highlights the lack of evidence justifying the government's right to tax individuals.
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When they have once taken our money, they have the decency to get out of our sight as soon as possible; they do not persist in following us, and robbing us, again and again, so long as we produce anything that they can take from us.
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.
For all these reasons, they are not only modest and sensible, but really frank, honest, and honorable villains, contrasted with these courts of injustice, and the lawmakers by whom these courts are established.
They do not carry their heads high, above all other men, and demand our reverence and admiration, as statesmen, patriots, and benefactors.