so you neither you read the article nor you can draw conclusions - must belong to tea party or what? The state (or emperor) taxes people not because it is morally good or bad or it is such a big fun. Taxes are collected for two reasons: keep the state running i.e. have those corner stones of civilization like justice system, police, army, administration needed to govern that etc as well as to spend it on things that whoever has the power thinks is good. This may include the circus or some other policy - i.e. effectively redistributing the wealth. Now the way the wealth is redistributed, who gets it and who pays for it is a matter of applicable laws and decisions that folks in a given country have to come to agreement for - for this a certain amount of social cohesion is needed or appropriate oppression apparatus as well as indoctrination in schools ('free market fixes all' is not much different from 'Kim was the greatest leader' in that it is not really true) - this is in fact redistribution already as in an ideal state police and justice system do not need oppress people into anything so one may argue having institutions like say DEA is just as much about redistribution (of money and power) as in case of public schools etc. Once we understand that we can start thinking about two other things: what we want to support with our taxes including prioritizing of targets etc and how we are going to fund those targets with tax. If one find out that money kept in bank is to be taxed because it benefits the society in which banks operate then so be it and we should only hope that decisions like this are based on merit not on basis of wishful thinking and political indoctrination and they get modified if found not working or being inefficient in that what they do. OC reality is different I know but that is ideal to fight for.