a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function

This is actually a very good definition, superior any of the 6 definitions in the paper dictionary by my desk. It also agrees with the critical distinction provided by "sjbe", who you needlessly flamed.

We all benefit from having a well educated society, so we should all pay for schools.

That's a blatant non sequitur. Furthermore, people who send their children to private schools or who home-school are still forced to pay the same taxes as everybody else, despite the fact that they're already paying for more than the burden they're placing on the education system.

It gets worse. Many modern public schools are teaching political indoctrination and historical lies, and are generally crippling the minds of their students. That sort of education does not benefit me, it harms me.

We all benefit from living in neighborhoods full of happy people. Puppies make people happy. Therefor we should all pay taxes to buy puppies. Puppy ownership should be made mandatory.

We all benefit from the oxygen given off by plants. Therefor tax money should be paid to put grass on every possible surface.

This is fun, I could go on all day. "We should all pay for schools because we all benefit from a well educated society" is a completely broken argument.

damage to roadways occurs by the square of the vehicle's weight.

Where'd you pick up that fiction? It doesn't take much thinking to realize that it's a complicated function closer to weight per unit area than weight alone. There's probably a critical point where added burden actually starts breaking up the road, rather than just wearing it faster. Old-style tire studs are very hard on roads, and metal treads or metal farm vehicle wheels are downright destructive (and often illegal on public roads).

As long as taxes on semis reflect the actual expenses they cause in road maintenance, etc., then justice is being served.

Road maintenance has to be paid for through some mechanism. If that mechanism doesn't accurately track expenses, you're demanding that someone pay for things they have no responsibility for. That's an improper burden on them, and should be avoided if it's practical to do so.

All government laws are ultimately enforced by violence or threat of violence, often referred to as "at gunpoint".

No voluntary, honest, harmless transaction between mentally competent adults should be prohibited by law.

No single person has the right to point a gun at me and say "you must pay him at least $15.00 an hour." A group does not gain new rights by adding members, so no group, howsoever formed, even if it calls itself a government, has the right to point a gun at me and say "you must pay him at least $15.00 an hour."

Minimum wages laws are a moral obscenity, and have no place in a civil society.

The economy is nothing but money trading hands.

The economy is goods changing hands, and services being performed, for considerations, usually with money as an intermediary. That you think money motion is the economy disqualifies you from economic discussions.

So if the "free market" rate for a haircut is $10/hour and the minimum wage is raised to $15/hour then everyone will stop getting hair cuts?

I've been cutting my own hair for 47 years.

Or if it costs $10/hour to make toothbrushes then raising the minimum wage above $10/hour will cause everyone to stop brushing their teeth?

That sentence is incoherent.

Consumption ... drives the economy.

Wrong. You can't consume what hasn't been produced. Production comes first; production is fundamental.