Halt! You owe me money and I want you to give it to me RIGHT NOW!
I'm sorry... what? You want me to PROVE that you owe me money?
You kind of caught me off guard. Let's see...
If I were to take two pieces of paper and write on each one that you owe me money because of what is written on the other, would that PROVE you owe me money? What if I sent you threats in the mail for not paying? Would that PROVE you owe me money? How about if I drag you in front of a bunch of people to show them what I wrote on these two pieces of paper? Would that PROVE you owe me money? If I was willing to kidnap you and throw you in a cage, would that PROVE you owe me money?
What if it was someone else who wrote what is written on these pieces of paper? What if that person died of natural causes a long time ago? What if you aren't even specifically mentioned on these pieces of paper? What if I wasn't actually given these pieces of paper but instead found them somewhere before you were even born?
Would any of this PROVE that you owe me money?
What if I call one piece of paper "the constitution" and the other "the tax code"? What if I called my threats "demands to file" and "assessments"? What if I call myself a "tax agent"? What if I call the people I drag you in front of a "judge", "jury" and "prosecutor"? What if I call the process of dragging you in front of them to show off my pieces of paper a "trial"? What if I call kidnapping you and imprisoning you "justice"?
Would any of this PROVE that you owe me money?
If my pieces of paper can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you owe me money, how could I prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you failed to pay what you owe? If I can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you failed to pay what you owe, wouldn't that indicate that you don't actually owe me anything? If I force you to pay me despite the fact that you don't actually owe me anything, wouldn't that make me a thief and a bully?
If I can't provide evidence of a debt in this manner, how could anyone else? If no one can provide evidence of a debt in this manner, how can it be demonstrated that anyone actually has an obligation to pay taxes?
If no one actually has an obligation to pay taxes, wouldn't that mean "government" is just a group of men and women who force people to pay them?
It undoubtedly would.
I'm Jared Howe! I'm a Voluntaryist hip hop artist and professional technical editor/writer with a passion for Austrian economics and universal ethics. You can catch my podcast every Friday on the Seeds of Liberty Podcast Network.