Joeseph Stack's Suicide Letter

[Ikeren]

Lets assume for a second I wasn't doing real research and checking scholarly sources (which I am), and wasn't also reading contradictory sources (some of which I also don't believe, but we don't live in a dichotomous world these days); say I was so lazy that all I did was check wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom...m#Inaccuracies


Also, the very premise itself is somewhat, maybe not fallacious in itself, but moderately unsound. The argument is 1) There is no law that says we must pay taxes (a fact, that may or may not be true), therefore, we should not pay our taxes. Even if the former is true (that there is no law saying we must pay taxes), and sufficient sound journalism reveals it, then the government just makes this law. And there is no major outcry, because there already is a convention of taxation.

I do, however, agree that some of his examples provide interesting information about peoples general lack of knowledge on the subject of taxation and the lack of clarity in tax statutes, but as a whole, does the argument make sense? No; because the real question is not "Are we legally obligated to pay taxes" but instead is "Are we morally obligated to pay taxes, and how much?"; a different, and much more relevant question. Russo assumes we already all know the answer (no; we are not morally obligated), but the actual debate is still up in the air; especially in other countries (I'm Canadian, and while I recognize much of this material is designed for the US, questions of moral obligation to taxation matter for all democratic nations) where the tangible benefits of taxation is whatever the US has + healthcare (in Canada), to even whatever the US has + healthcare + Post Secondary Education (in the European Union). It's not a question of "are we legally bound to pay taxes" but instead "Are the taxes we pay being spent well?" If the answer is no, there, then it calls for a change in government.

I could, and have, written essays on the subject, but I'll be shorter here for everyone's benefit (including my own).