Prop 10K

[a_priori]

Suppose the following voter initiative (referendum) appears on the ballot in your area:

Proposition 10K
Records shall be kept of individual citizen votes on this initiative. Upon its passage, a $10,000 tax shall be levied on each citizen who voted against this initiative, as well as each who failed to vote at all. The resulting funds shall be

Comments

[greensword]

So anyone who doesn't vote yes essentially chooses to put themselves in a position to be punished.

I would respond:

a) Just because someone chooses to take the risk of being punished doesn't mean it's therefore right to punish them.

and

b) The choice to put themselves in that position is not made without coercion, as the only other option is to vote for something they don't believe in. Therefore they cannot necessarily be said to have "freely chosen" it.

Let's take a different hypothetical example. Let's say you have a child. That child is dying of kidney failure on the other side of the country. You want to donate your kidney, but you need to physically get there to do so. The only way to get there fast enough is via a toll road. Unfortunately, this toll road has some pretty risky terms. One out of every 100 people who takes it will be randomly selected to have a bodily organ harvested.

You take the toll road, are randomly selected, and lose a kidney. Your child dies. Was it perfectly fine for the people who ran the toll road to take your kidney? Would it be fine to take your kidney if you were just out for a pleasure ride?