> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://anarchosatoshi-disorganization.gitbook.io/wtf/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://anarchosatoshi-disorganization.gitbook.io/wtf/on-dextaxation/munchhausen-and-taxation-entering-the-trilemma.md).

# Münchhausen and taxation: entering the trilemma

You pay taxes because they were paid by your parents and grandparents, whoever they were; because they are paid by your good or bad friends; and because they are paid by your neighbours in the poor or luxurious house next door. Ultimately this leads to the fact that

> you pay taxes because everyone (in general) pays them.

But with that kind of answer, the question remains:

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Why does everyone pay them?
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You pay taxes —*They* tell you again and again, from here and there— because in this way you contribute to social spending, understanding as such the public goods, the common or diffuse goods that —*They* also tell you— only the Public Administration (of higher or lower level, closer or further away) can manage. Leaving aside that a (large) part of what you spend is diverted ideologically

{% hint style="info" %}
E.g.: we are going to paint benches purple so that women feel more protected sitting there; or we are going to pay for penis and breast amputation operations so that humans with gender dysphoria can feel proud of their psychopathologies; or...
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and another for corruption

{% hint style="info" %}
E.g.: we are going to pay for so-called training courses so that those who are paid to give the fake courses and those who receive the grants to pay the tuition fees will vote for us; or we are going to pay for regional administrations so that regional parties will support us); or...
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—I repeat: leaving aside all that you pay to cover ideological expenses or for corruption, which is by no means negligible...— the truth is that very little, or perhaps none, of what you are told you receive in return for paying taxes you actually receive. But that is not where I am going, about what you do or do not receive in return for your tax contribution. No. For it is true that you always receive something, at the very least, security through the monopoly of brute force that the Public Administration has established with the creation of police and armies. Just as it is equally true that you may not be able to receive it —security— in any other way. That it is better to give guns to these people I know than to these other hooded men I don't know is probably universally true at the police level, but not at the military level. For it is an empirical fact that the world's leading police forces are made up of honest groups of equally honest people. What cannot be said, however, of the world's major armies, perhaps not because of their soldiers but because of the economic and power interests behind those who lead them. So, no, that's not where I'm going. I mean: it is an uncontroversial fact that (at this stage of human civilisation) there are some goods and services that are either provided by the Public Administration or not provided at all. But the quid is:

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Why pay taxes beyond what is fair and necessary?
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[Churchill said](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/12/08/democracy-worst/) that democracy may not be the best form of government, but it is the least bad. And the same reasoning underlies the provision of services by the Publica Administration: security on the streets through the police and at the borders through the military may not be the best solutions, but they are the least bad. However, beyond this security, I do not see that this reasoning can be sustained today, or in the rampant future, for any other service apart from security.

And, if it can be sustained, it will be only and exclusively —once again— by force of the <mark style="color:green;">habit of doing</mark> that has displaced the <mark style="color:green;">custom of thinking</mark>; because of the pathological disregard for thinking by the human, a human being who has abandoned himself, surrendered, kneeling in front of the arrogant explanation of the "just because" type. Therefore, I must insist:

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Why do we do things this way?
{% endhint %}

You —humans— do them this way because —I have already said it, and there is no more— this is how your progenitors did them, from those you know to those who are lost in time. But if you have the <mark style="color:red;">courage</mark> to go into that lost time, you will come to the knowledge of <mark style="color:green;">the</mark> <mark style="color:green;"></mark>*<mark style="color:green;">first because</mark>*.

Then, if we examine the *first because*, in answer to the question "why do you pay taxes?" from [Münchhausen's *trilemma*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Münchhausen_trilemma), we have the following answers lines:

1. I pay taxes because that is the law of my country.
2. I pay taxes because it is the right thing to do.
3. I pay taxes because my parents paid them, and before that their parents paid them, and before that...