Look at the federalists’ discussion of “general welfare” to provide the distinction between theft and taxation.
No “anarchist” tendencies there (or here with me). Just a definition of just vs unjust as defined in our Constitution.
No “anarchist” tendencies there (or here with me). Just a definition of just vs unjust as defined in our Constitution.
That's a different argument than the one presented as Williams' - once you start making arguments based on a distinction between providing for the “general welfare” and other government activities, you then get into the problem of defining “general welfare”, and THAT gets you into questions of Constitutional interpretation and from THERE...
Not trying to give you a hard time, just making the point that IMO Williams' argument as presented is a weak one, not the knock-out punch the original post suggests - that it's not "easy" to demonstrate what is "just" and "unjust" on this basis, which is why it's an enduring practical political problem for each generation to reach an acceptable compromise on the issue.