The Forced Rider Problem

**Xerographica** · 03-01-2013, 05:20 AM

Recently I created an entry on Wikipedia for the forced rider problem. You can see the original entry here... User:Xerographica/Forced_rider_problem along with quite a few passages on the topic.

Also, here's my comment on Jeffrey Tucker's essay...To Free One's Mind...

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Really nicely written. But your premise is completely flawed. Basically, Rothbard argued that taxation destroyed individual valuation. Except the problem has absolutely nothing to do with the coercion and everything to do with the assumption that government planners are omniscient. Just like Rothbard you're needlessly bundling these two things together...and consumers just aren't buying the bundle.

Therefore, what we need to sell to consumers is the simple solution to the preference revelation problem...pragmatarianism. People would still have to pay taxes, but they would have the freedom to demonstrate their preferences for public goods. In essence we would create a market in the public sector and taxpayers would have the option to shop for themselves. At anytime throughout the year you could go directly to a government organization's website and submit a tax payment.

Congress would still be in charge of the tax rate...but you would be in charge of deciding how much of your taxes you gave to congress. And just like every other organization, congress would want to maximize its revenue. So if they set the tax rate too high...or too low...then they would lose revenue. Therefore, it's entirely possible, and extremely desirable, to have taxation and individual valuation.

**acptulsa** · 03-01-2013, 07:39 AM

Libertarians still don't find taxation and individual valuation valuable. Progressives still don't want taxpayers deciding how revenue is distributed, libertarians still find cutting Congress out of the loop unconstitutional, and pretty much everyone still doesn't think it will work. Hell's bells, man--there's a reason we're a republic, not a democracy. Much of what the government does is pretty much invisible to the average idiot who can't even tell Washington from City Hall, and considers it all 'teh gubberment'. How many people will even think of Mississippi River Navigation at tax time?

Rothbard is right--the fact that government planners aren't omniscient, and are often pretty much idiots, would be no problem at all if it weren't for the coersion. And no matter how much you spam this silliness, these things will not change.