Since David's recent blog has attracted attention from some self-described Objectivists and Libertarians, let me say a few things to those new commenters.

It's clear that you feel that all taxes are illegitimate ("stolen money"), and do not believe in any social contract (a la John Locke) by which citizens preserve the maximum freedom possible for them by delegating their personal legislative rights to a freely chosen legislative authority. In short, you don't accept taxation with representation. We can argue the point, but many of you seem quite set in your convictions.

So, if the public services that taxes provide do not seem to be worth paying taxes, let's make a deal:

You stop paying taxes, declare yourself a Sovereign Guest Citizen, and we, the taxpayers, will charge you whatever the market bears for the services that we fund.

I think this is eminently fair. I believe that the public services are worth paying taxes for, and so I pay them. You do not believe that such services are worthwhile or legitimate. Don't use them.

If you do wish to use them, however, you must pay me for them. Otherwise, you are stealing from me, plain and simple. If I pay for a road and you don't, you may not use it without my permission, and I am free to set whatever price the free market permits. And certainly, I cannot be forced to act against my own economic self-interest.

Therefore, all roads will be toll roads for you, as all streets and alleys will be toll streets and alleys, and all sidewalks toll sidewalks. You will be charged for any and all uses of public property, in which the taxpayers have invested and which we constantly pay to maintain. (This extends, naturally, to public parks and beaches, public offices, and public courthouses.) We, as the owners, are free to set the prices. We will charge you per use, with prices for specific streets, bridges, and highways determined by overhead and market demand, or we can offer you monthly or annual subscriptions for certain areas.

Naturally, to eliminate the free-rider problem, we must charge you for all goods and services delivered to you using taxpayer resources. These delivery tolls will be related to the number of public roads, rails, bridges and other services used to make the delivery.

The United States Postal Service will continue to serve taxpayers at subsidized rates. Sovereign Guest Citizens may also use the Postal Service both to send and receive mail and parcels, at special SGC rates comparable to those of private delivery companies. Naturally, you may use such companies, rather than our service, for mail needs, but remember that our ownership of the national transportation infrastructure cuts our overhead considerably.

You are more than welcome to purchase foods, drugs and medications which have been regulated and inspected by our USDA and FDA. However, we must add a reasonable surcharge for those inspection services, since we paid for them. If you do not wish to purchase federally-inspected foods or medications, you are free to buy medicines that underwent no FDA trials and foodstuffs that did not pass federal inspection. (I know where you can buy a bunch of eggs cheap.) However, the seller in such transactions may not be held liable in any court. Let the buyer beware.

You are also welcome to purchase our clean (and often fluoridated) drinking water from our public reservoirs. Should our price structure prove unsatisfactory, you may drill a well or collect rain water.

We are also happy to offer you our public sanitation system, which will remove the bodily wastes from the plumbing at your home and/or business. Our prices are reasonable. You may purchase your own sanitation tank elsewhere if you insist, or recycle your personal waste in any other way that does not intefere with your neighbors and their property.

You are welcome to subscribe to our fire-protection and EMT/ambulance/resuce services. Please do not wait until an emergency to buy our services. Those who wish to purchase same-day benefits may negotiate for them during their house fire or cardiac event. We will charge such customers what they are willing to pay for our services under current market conditions.

We are happy to offer three basic subscription levels for our police and judicial protection services. Our maximum level of subscription offers full service by our police forces, court systems, and penal facilities: the same level of service that taxpayers provide for ourselves. We regret that police services cannot provide coverage for any events before your subscription is activated. Our second level carries no police services but allows you full access to our criminal courts, at a price designed to reflect the costs of our courts and of our criminal-detention programs. Should you object to the detention of criminals or feel our costs are unreasonable, you may subscribe to our minimum protection plan at no cost. This provides neither police protection to recourse to our courts of criminal law. In order to avoid charging Sovereign Guest Citizens inappropriately, the homes and businesses of second-level and minimum subscribers will be identified with clear, legible signage, and on publicly available maps, so that you are not burdened with services for which you do not wish to pay.

We regret that we must charge all Sovereign Guest Citizens an annual fee for national defense. We strive to provide the best military and signals-intelligence protection that money can buy, and our pricing structure reflects that excellence. Sovereign Guest Citizens who are unhappy with paying for a full National Defense Subscription may receive a 15% Minimal Risk discount by surrendering their international-travel privileges and cutting themselves off from all contact (active or passive) with non-U.S. citizens.

We happily provide all taxpayers and future taxpayers with at least twelve years of taxpayer-funded education, and with significant educational benefits and subsidies for further study. We will happily provide the same education to non-taxpayers at market prices. Should you wish to opt out of taxpayer status after receiving our educational-benefits package, we will be happy to work out a repayment plan, adjusted for the rate of inflation, at reasonable interest rates. Moreover, our fees for the use of taxpayer-educated employees are extremely reasonable, and reflect both the length of each employee's taxpayer-financed education and that employee's overall educational achievement. We think you'll be satisfied with the workforce we educated. If you are not satisfied with a specific employee, perhaps a better-educated employee may be worth the price.

Sovereign Guest Citizens will have all of their fundamental rights as citizens protected. You are free to speak, believe, and worship as you please, free to bear arms, and free to assemble either in private or (for reasonable usage fees) in public. None of your rights will be abrogated in any way. However, you may not vote in any election or for any officeholder who determines tax rates, taxpayer expenditures, or service pricing for Sovereign Guest Citizens. It would obviously be unjust for non-taxpayers to increase the amount that taxpayers spend, or to authoize services for which they do not pay. It is also a clear and fundamental wrong for non-taxpayers to interfere with the operations of the free market by trying to use the electoral process to reduce the prices taxpayers charge them for using taxpayer property. Therefore, Sovereign Guest Citizens may not vote in most public elections. We are considering a Constitutional amendment which would provide a third House of Congress, without fiscal authority or responsibilites, who could represent both taxpayers and non-taxpayers alike. This House of Delegates would be authorized, for example, to designate National Wildflower Month, or to issue official decrees honoring Larry Bird's contributions to American life.

We are pleased to say, due to problems assessing a fair price, that clean air will provided to all Sovereign Guest Citizens free of cost. The major expenses of regulating and cleaning the atmosphere to keep it healthy and breathable, and of eliminating various toxic wastes from the environment, are simply the txpayer's gift to you as our neighbors. However, should you abuse this gift by actively polluting the air, groundwater, or soil, we will regrettably be forced to execute you. Of course, you will first be free to purchase a free and fair trial from our courts.