Subjective Utility

The most common rebuttal I've heard against the notion that taxation is theft is "it's not theft, you get something from your taxes, and if you don't like it you can vote people out of office."  The latter part of that statement I'll hold off on even though any libertarian balks at the idea of the people being the government.

The crux of the utility matter is that utility is subjective.  I might use a road, I may want to pay a portion of my income to that road, if it were privately owned, my amount of usage would be proportional to the utility it brings me and the price I'm willing to pay.  I might want to help the less fortunate and I might give some of my money to satisfy that desire, which gives me utility.  What is unknown by anyone else is the fraction of my pay I'd commit to these causes, or -- now in danger of becoming repetative -- know the utility anything brings to anyone.  Buying gifts is not satisfying the utility of the recipient (though it will to some degree) but it brings utility to the giver who gets the satisfaction or relief of having a gift to give.  The government, if it understood economics, would be claiming that it knows the utility each one of its programs brings to every individual in society.  If it does not claim this then it is admitting to theft  since consent cannot be given for something I would not pay for voluntarily.

Taxes proportional to consumption (gas, sales, water, property, etc.) curb the consumer's demand for these products.  If there were a 100% sales tax, people would be buying less items they want and more government programs they may or may not want.  Now, all prices contain a level of overhead (brick and mortar, sales persons, accounting, marketing, private regulation, etc.) but these are all related to getting the product to the consumer in the most efficient and safest manner.  Taxes usually go to some unrelated cause (e.g. schools paid for by property taxes).  It takes a very round about way to connect these fees to the products, and what it never allows for is competition.  If schools are essential parts of property ownership then there should be a choice of who builds and maintains the schools.  Private and home schools exist but only on top of the tax burden.  Private security exists but only on top of tax used for police.

Utility is subjective, which is why all taxes, useful or not, constitute theft.  The highway robber who claims that we'll get back our money in the form of a well fed homeless man, or a new rest stop along the road is no more justified in holding us up than the government because both -- neither being omniscient -- have denied us the full utility of our property.