This comment is mostly an aside, so feel free to skip reading if you’re not interested in a digression.
To quote the quote of Huemer:
Similarly, if taxation is theft, then it would probably be wrong to tax people, say, to pay for an art museum.
I enjoyed much of the argument that you quoted, but this struck me.
I think maybe the “would probably be” should have been written “it might be”. I can think of arguments around the benefits to society of everyone getting to enjoy art in an art museum that do not seem to apply to the individual who steals to buy a piece of art for their home.
I haven’t thought them all the way through, but, again, I found the quoted sentence quite incongruous.
This comment is mostly an aside, so feel free to skip reading if you’re not interested in a digression.
To quote the quote of Huemer:
I enjoyed much of the argument that you quoted, but this struck me.
I think maybe the “would probably be” should have been written “it might be”. I can think of arguments around the benefits to society of everyone getting to enjoy art in an art museum that do not seem to apply to the individual who steals to buy a piece of art for their home.
I haven’t thought them all the way through, but, again, I found the quoted sentence quite incongruous.