How are taxes an infringement on liberty?

Mutt

(I'm assuming you mean taxes in general, not just income taxes and not just federal taxes. My answer is in general, and includes state taxes, property taxes, gas tax, etc., along with income tax.)

Paying taxes for necessary projects and services is fine. It costs money to fund a military to defend the country, to repair and improve the transportation system, for police and fire service, schools, etc.

When it starts infringing on my rights is when it starts getting excessive for unnecessary things like the arts, bailout failing companies, and a welfare system that has run out of control (welfare is good for those that absolutely need it, but it is too easy to abuse the current system).

Miriam

Taxes are an infringement on liberty only so far as they forcibly take away something that you have earned (i.e. your money)

It stems from the ideas of John Locke who said that because we are not slaves (we own our own bodies) then the product of our bodies (i.e. our labour) is ours also. Because it is ours - we own it - we can sell our labour to others for a cost, we then own the money given to us as an exchange for our labour.
Taxes removes some of this money thereby infringing on our personal right to own the product of our labour (using the logic of John Locke's argument)

However, although it is technically a minor infringement on PERSONAL rights, I believe these personal rights can in this instance be superseded by SOCIETAL rights. Humans function better in a society and taxes are what we give up in order to support our society which in turn supports us.

R C

Whoever controls the money controls liberty. Like it or not money controls everything. The founding fathers knew this and that is why they literally tarred and feathered the tax man, and that is why the original Boston Tea Party happened.

"...to compel a man to furnish contributions [taxes] of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical;" - Thomas Jefferson, The Statute of Virginia.

Taxes oppress the people. Overbearing regulations oppress the people. A lack of justice oppresses the people. These oppress the very people which they are supposed to be serving and protecting. That is the reason our founding fathers gave us a federal government with no personal income taxes and rather limited overall powers. Unfortunately, professional politicians, bureaucrats, and an unchecked judiciary have abused and perverted those powers to the point where they control and regulate virtually every aspect of our lives.
Taxes cost people. Tax cuts do not cost government.

Paula

It is not merely "taxes", but "excessive taxes," such as those Obama wants to implement.

The power to tax is the power to destroy, which is what Obama wants to do to the U.S. (through excessive taxation to pay for unnecessary, ineffectual, social programs, not only for the U.S. but footing the bill for a large part of the rest of the world).

adoucheisjustashowerelsewhere

I mainly agree with Mickey Mouse above me. I just want to add that most Americans are a bit retarded when it comes to understanding taxes: People think Taxes=Bad, Less Taxes=Good, so they vote for whoever promises to lower taxes and then they complain about how their roads haven't been fixed in a year and how their kids have 20-year-old history textbooks.

Look at some of the idiotic replies you got: "Obama wants to tax people because he wants to destroy the US" (Paula). Also: Americans, in every situation possible, refer to the founding fathers (and their assumed infallibility), using what they said some 200 years ago to justify current politics. That's retarded (R C). The country is not the same as it was back then, therefore things have had to change and will have to keep on changing. Just like we technically don't have the need for a right to bear arms for a well-regulated militia, but that's a different story...

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