Is the state compatible with the free-market?
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http//www.mises.org/rothbard/power&market.pdf
The author claims that "a truly free market is totally incompatible with the existence of a State, an institution that presumes to ?defend? person and property by itself subsisting on the unilateral coercion against private property known as taxation."
He also claim that "On the free market, defense against violence would be a service like any other,obtainable from freely competitive private organizations."
He claims that no tax could be neutral and that it always supports some to the preference of others....
see his text The Myth of Neutral Taxation
http//www.mises.org/rothbard/myth.pdf
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http//www.mises.org/rothbard/power&market.pdf
The author claims that "a truly free market is totally incompatible with the existence of a State, an institution that presumes to ?defend? person and property by itself subsisting on the unilateral coercion against private property known as taxation."
He also claim that "On the free market, defense against violence would be a service like any other,obtainable from freely competitive private organizations."
He claims that no tax could be neutral and that it always supports some to the preference of others....
see his text The Myth of Neutral Taxation
http//www.mises.org/rothbard/myth.pdf
Salam Zlatan, all,
Thank you for the articles (links). Very interesting and it is actually one of the battles engaged by all the left wing-) to precisely try to balance the relation between state and corporate (privatizing). My interest in these issues is always in the light of Quran. I always questioned the issue of big corporate (I work for one-)) control versus the state as defined in Quran. What is your understanding of free market from the Quran perspective? and how do you see "Taxation" in the light of the Quran?
I personally have been struggling with this issue of "taxation" at the individual level versus what should be the role of a "state" from a Quran perspective. I couldn't find a good balance in my understanding. Some would consider zakat as a form of taxation mainly because it is permitted in Quran to pay the one who administrates the zakat with the zakat money but I don't see in Quran that this person should necessary be the goverment. I actually can hire for (outsource) the zakat services and not relay on the goverment to do it for me and this is precisely to avoid "neutrality" but yet in an "islamic" state (if any-)) this is perceived as part of the government role. To tell you the truth, the line is still blurred for me-) and so far what I can see in Quran is a free market as long as it does not violate God's system of ethics. The state in Quran as I see it is a state who protects God's system boundaries and not set the boundaries, in other words a liberal semi-concervative state-). I may be wrong though.
Any sharing of understanding in the light of Quran is more than welcome.
Peace.Myr. -
Hello Myr?.how are you doing?..nice to see that you are concerned with what is just and what is not?may your creator show you the light and led you to what is most rational and just?
To resolve or at least help resolve your problems or dilemmas, the 2 things are necessary
-1 knowledge of the problematic/area + 2. knowledge of the revelation(includes knowlegde of its language) ....since i lack the complete knowledge of both thematics my judgements would be necessarily suspect to great incorrectness and adjustements
-to begin with something, imo its not legitimate to justify the tax system based on the God`s allowance of collecting religious tributes and spending part of them at the collectors ....
-in understanding and applying The God given ordinances the context is very important... in this particular case its important to differentiate between -voluntary and involuntary comunities....and believeing and secular communities....because the causes and effects might significantly differ in these cases.....or in cases which are mixture of these two...and thus solution and prescription would probably differ?.
-its important to realise that religious tributes are voluntary and based on an absolute belief in the issuing authority(The God) and are spent on the specific purposes which are absolutely aproved and supported by the tribute payer... ....while the the taxes are not and are extracted under the threat of the violence or force, without the faith in the issuing authority and spend on the purposes chosen by the goverment which maybe do not suite the tax payer or may be contrary to his principles...in that case the tax is a double or a triple harm, the tax payer barred of his money(1st) under a violent threat(and thus humiliated-2nd) and finaly his money is spent to purposes which he does not like or approve(3rd injury).... and all this is done under the pretext of the goverments service to the people?!
Let alone fact that the tax payer often hasnt voted for that particular goverment or hasnt voted at all, or has voted only because he was forced to choose between the lesser of the two evils....the whole system of representatives might be false and a fallacy?see for example Lysander Spooner "A Letter to Thomas F. Bayard- Challenging His Right - And that of All the Other So-Called Senators and Representative in Congress - To Exercise Any Legislative Power Whatever Over the People of the United States (1882)"
http//www.lysanderspooner.org/LetterToBayard.htm
Of the crutial importance on this subject is his shocking work
"No Treason.( No. VI) The Constitution of No Authority"
http//www.lysanderspooner.org/notreason.htm#no6
True there may be communities where the payment of taxes wil be voluntarily( though i dont think it would be called taxes then)...thus, if someone has pledged to paying the tax or contracted himself to do so, or has becomed the member of the community by a contract(and not by a force) then the tax would be pretty fine with me...however what is problematic is extracting tax payments by physical threats or spending it on the purposes other that those originaly intended or contrary to the wishes of the taxpayer...
- a slight disgression... you used the term zakat for the tributes while i would like to leave the original sadakaat(whatever its translation be)
imo betterment or purification or purity is meaning of the word zakat that is more correct and thus "enabling/helping/causing/stimulating(to perform)/bringing forth" of PURIFICATION/BETTERMENT or "approaching/performing" it or "prefering/favoring" it (some of the meanings of 4th or 1th or 3rd, in order of appearence, stem of the verb atw/y often used in combination with the word zakat) a better translation for the "eetaauz- zakat" or "itaauz-zakat" etc. from "giving charity" or "paying zakat"....
best wishes
Zlatan