Government purpose

People in this country and everywhere else have forgotten, or have never understood, the purpose of government and taxes, which go hand in hand.

We created government to protect us from force and fraud, not to take care of us or to manipulate our behavior for our own good, as decided by politicians. And taxes should be used exclusively to provide for those protective services and other services that cannot be paid for individually, like construction and maintenance of public roads, bridges and infrastructure; police and fire protection; and local parks.

The most recent example of unquestioning acceptance of government actions and assertions is in the Jan. 25 editorial “Taming a Tax War.” It stated: “The argument for a digital tax is that, without one, companies such as Google and Facebook make money from foreign customers without paying anything to the national governments of those customers.” What service would those foreign governments provide with the money taken from Google and Facebook? What burden is placed on governments by customers buying products or services advertised on Google or Facebook?

Governments of the world now function thusly: Politicians look for ways to take money from productive citizens and then spend that money in ways that best enable them to get re-elected. Taxes and government services have nothing to do with each other, unlike in the free market where one goes to a store and buys something. NICK KYRIAZI

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