This is something I was going to ask for a while now in relation to this Rothbard quote from How and How Not to Desocialize:
"Whatever taxation that might exist after desocialization should, however, be as close to neutral as possible. This would mean, in addition to very low rates and amounts, that the taxation be as unobtrusive and harmless as possible, and imitate the market as closely as it can. Such imitation might include the voluntary sale of goods and services at a price, or setting a price for participating in voting. The sale of goods or services by the government would, of course, be drastically limited in our desocialized system, because of the enormous scope of privatization of government activities. Privatization will be treated below."Any ideas what sort of goods and services does Rothbard have in mind specifically? He is being very unspecific.
What does a government selling goods look like? A government monopoly on salt?
And selling services? That would be the government demanding a fee for issuance of marital licenses and passports and the like? Am I kicking in the dark here?
I like Rothbard on ideas. Not so fond of him as social planner however.
Libertarians should not seek to be social engineers using the principles of capitalism to maximize utility output. All taxation is theft, and we should never advocate any taxation in any form to any degree. It is immoral to say, "Well, if we're going to mug people, let's start mugging this certain group of people in this certain less harmful way," because implicit in that is an acceptance of mugging in the first place.
Poll taxes, taxes on civil servants, contract enforcement fees, court fees, courts taking a cut of the proceeds in victim compensation, seizure of criminals assets, are the ones that I could think of off the top of my head. User fees, as well.
This is a thing that always left me dubious... how can "voluntary" and "government" be found in the same sentence? In my opinion Rothbard was basically taking potshots here. I really like him as an economics student and polemicist but sometimes his work left much to be desired.
Government can simply start developing certain stretches of land, and offer them for sale. Start out by issuing bonds or public equity, use the proceeds to build roads, and create clearings for development in a particular area. Sell the land available to all interested bidders, then participate as a land exchange group to mediate between potential buyers and sellers of land seeking each other out, and take a commision for these services from both of them.
Oh, and they can provide space for commercial enterprises, and asking only the consideration that all goods and services they sell will include a commision to them at a flat rate - more or less a flat rate indirect tax.
Carbon tax, obviously. Until the air is privatized.
Air can't be privatized. Are you an environmentalist or something?
I suppose Rothbard may not had been able to come up with an actuall tax that was not totally disagreable with him and therefore remained vague here - knowing that he was being vague. It was an essay aiming at the Gorbachevs` of the world so schooling his readers in the ways of anarchy was not a priority.
Marko: What does a government selling goods look like? A government monopoly on salt?
Well, a good example is how some of the remaining monarchies generate revenue for themselves. The Windsors I believe have alot of rental properties. Something like that could be used to generate enough revenue to cover basic services.
Caley McKibbin: Air can't be privatized. Are you an environmentalist or something?
LOL @ not getting it was a joke.
I don't want people to pollute the air I breathe and I don't want any country to look like this. If its environmentalism then yes, I'm an environmentalist.
You should be an anti-statist then, because what you see happens when ownership is not private.
O_Brien: I don't want people to pollute the air I breathe and I don't want any country to look like this. If its environmentalism then yes, I'm an environmentalist.
I've heard about successful privatization of fish shoals but never heard about successful privatization of air and rivers.