[ExI] Against government science funding was Re: New Hope for Alzheimer's Disease Vaccine

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 8:37 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>  Much of the money collected is wasted. It would be better if this
>  money were left in the hands of the taxpayers

### Taken out of your context, these sentences perfectly encapsulate
what I think about taxation.

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>  If my house burns down my insurance company will pay to build me a
>  replacement. This is despite the fact that I may only have paid a few
>  hundred dollars in premiums: the deal was that if it burns down, they
>  will pay, and I don't feel guilty about taking the money from all the
>  other policyholders whose houses don't burn down.

### This was a voluntary deal: Nobody forced the folks at the company
to write you an insurance contract. Nobody gets hurt here, in fact,
since both parties (you and the company) enter the contract willingly,
a presumption of a positive sum game can be made.

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Similarly, the deal
>  in the country where I live is that if I earn income I will pay a
>  proportion of it to the Government, and in return I will receive
>  certain services if I need them.

### No, this is not the "deal". I never was given the choice to accept
or reject the taxman. Neither did you.

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>
>  You will doubtless point out that I am free not to insure my house but
>  that isn't always an option. If I live in an apartment building I will
>  be forced to pay my share for insurance and other maintenance costs,
>  simply because the majority of the other owners have voted that way.

### There is a whole order of magnitude difference between changing an
apartment and changing your country. I can tell you that from my own
experience. This means that choice in countries is much more limited
than in apartments, and states are whole networks of enforcers,
illegitimately restricting my choice of laws.

Rafal