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Oh but it does belong to the government. Everything does, even your life.
I don't know if i'd say that, although, the government certainly does have significant control over those being governed.
It is not theft, it is the cost of living in society.
This argument makes no sense. In order to live in a society, one must pay arbitrary dues to a group of people who call themselves government?
one of which is by its very nature illegal,
Theft is not illegal by its very nature as legality is based on an arbitrary set of rules.
Taxation is societal dues. If you want to live in a society, you must contribute to it.
Again, this argument makes no sense. There is absolutely no reason why someone should have to pay arbitrary dues to some group of people demanding that you do. People should pay for the commodities and services used within a society, yes. However, paying to a third party is illogical and immoral as you are also unwillingly paying for things that you don't want. Not only is this irrational, but it's also economically inefficient as this third party will take most of your money and spend it for it's own self-interests.
Sure, it's unavoidable that you will have to use some things in a given society, however, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that we should then only pay for those certain things that we use? In your former argument you considered ceasing to use a single tax payer service that you are paying for to be theft. By this standard, anyone who is not using every service the government provides, anyone who isn't using any single service that their money is being used for is therefore being stolen from by the government. Do you agree?
I mean, we are talking about crime here... come now!
No, we're not talking about a crime. Just because certain forms of theft are lawfully considered crimes does not mean this debate is concerned with the nature of crime. We are talking about an action, the act of taking what does not belong to you, thus we are talking about the act of theft. Again, legality is irrelevant to this debate.
I never asked for your opinion on what a person who does not wish to pay taxes should do; another irrelevant argument. Try giving me an argument for why taxation is not theft, one that does not have to do with legality.
When did legality become relevant to this debate? This is concerning theft not legality, try to stay on topic here.
he is still taking what doesn't belong to him from the person to whom it does supposedly belong. It remains a selfish act even were he to give all of it to charity.
So if you say taking what does not belong to someone is a selfish act regardless of where that money goes to, and if you agree that those standards are what defines theft, then you evidently agree that taxation is theft by acknowledging that taxation is not voluntarily and is therefore taken from the taxpayer. Your words not mine.
Theft is that act of taking something from someone without that someone's approval. If I do not approve of giving my money to some entity that calls itself government and they coerce me into giving it to them anyways, I am being stolen from, thus theft is occurring.
Is it even possible to opt out of single taxpayer funded services though? Because I am implicitly forced to use govt. funded commodities like roads to get around places, my giving money to this entity is now justified? Is it okay for a group of thugs to demand I give them some of my money and use some of this money to buy a commodity which they then force me to use, while claiming that the continuation of my giving them money for use of their commodity, is now justified?
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