Meme of the Week: Reductio Ad Somalia
Megan McArdle vs Michael O'Hare
(on taxation etc from government/state)
Michael:
don't like government? Try Somalia (and let us know how that works out for you).
Megan:
You want higher progressive tax rates? Why don't you move to North Korea?
Let me know how real progressive taxation works for you.
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I love her finale:
[That's why ultimately,] I think this whole framework of "society" and individuals allocating mutual gains between them ultimately falls apart. To nurse it even as far as he does, O'Hare (and the many others who are fond of this sort of analogy) has to sort of leave out the coercive nature of what government does.
Unfortunately, I don't have a Grand New Theory with which to replace it; I think of "society" as a chaotic system, within which government, like corporations, are necessary evils that will only ever imperfectly perform the idealized roles to which we would like to assign them. As such, I can't generate any neat sound-bytes like "Taxation is theft!" or "Why don't you just move to Somalia, huh?"