Recently at Reason.tv: Taxes—The Price We Pay For Civilization

"Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society," said legendary Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

As students of Buck v. Bell could tell you, Holmes had a habit of being monstrously wrong, but if he's right about taxes and civilization, it's certainly worth asking whether we're getting what we pay for.

Approximately 1.06 minutes. Written and produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie.

For iPod, HD, and audio versions of this and all other Reason vids, go to Reason.tv.

To watch on YouTube, go here.

Comments

[troy]

THREADJACK

Daryl Gates is DEAD!!!

WOOHOO!!

Ding dong the witch is dead

The witch is deaaaaaaaaaaad.

[kilroy]

Long live the new witch.

[Jason]

"Taxes are what we pay for civilized society" in which a "society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind".

[KTWO]

Glad to see someone who agrees with me about Holmes. I never was impressed by the Holmes myth or the Holmes reality.

You get taxes in any society. Even at the lowest levels there are leaders who draft labor and goods from others. Taxes in another form.

Not all civilized societies are worth preserving or supporting by any definition.