Sorry to see that your apparent unfamiliarity with the notion of public goods makes the question (it was not an argument) look silly to you. Perhaps you should open a textbook before passing such negative judgment?
Markets fail to provide public goods such as defense, and the coercive power of government is needed to finance them (not produce but merely raise funds). Paying less taxes results therefore in fewer public goods (such as defense) and paying no taxes will result in no such goods because markets will not step in to provide them.
I asked the poster to clarify what makes him view as patriotic weakening or disappearance of America's defense.
I find you post somewhat confusing:
If they construct the tax laws...
Who they? I thought it was we, the people, who construct laws via our representatives.
... in such a way that the populace as a whole can legally pay zero, then they're...
Again, who are "they?"
...either getting their money
Our government (it, not they) does not have its own money. The only money it has is our money that we give the government to ensure provision of public goods.
...some other way..,
What other way?
... or they just plain don’t need it.
How can the country not need money for defense.
Sorry again that you found my post silly.
Don’t over feed the government, no good ever comes from it. Pay it not one cent more than you absolutely have to by law.
I agree. That was not the issue, however: the question was what makes paying less taxes patriotic, as another poster claimed.
money = power
Therefore
less money to fedgov = less power to fedgov
Therefore
our duty to limit fedgov power = our duty to give fedgov as little money as possible.
Sorry I did not spell it out before. I wrongly assumed that it would have been obvious to anyone on FR.
What makes it silly is that you make the completely illogical jump from paying the government as little as legally possible to the government getting no money at all and having to shut down the military. That’s not a matter of public goods, that’s a matter of you flying so far down the slippery slope as to no longer even being on the same mountain. What makes your argument even sillier is that he tax in question is a STATE tax and not one penny from it goes to the military.
Nobody is talking about markets, you are, once again, making a silly argument.
Nobody is talking about weakening or disappearing America’s defense. We’re simply talking about not over paying an already voracious federal government.
They the government that’s who. Duly appointed representatives of the people.
Our government has lots and lots of ways to get money besides direct taxation of the people. Tariffs, fees, tons of cash without having to directly hassle my wallet.
no you are wrong, that is EXACTLY the issue. It is the moral duty of EVERY single person to not give the government any excess money. That is the heart of fiscal conservatism, that is the heart of keeping the government in check. Paying less taxes, within the law, is patriotic because it maintains the correct balance America was founded on, that the government works for us, not the other way around.