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When a government taxes you, it takes something

you own without your consent. That’s exactly what a

thief does. The main difference is that the thief is

breaking the law, whereas the government is

(usually) taking your money legally.

David R. Henderson, The Joy of Freedom: An

Economist’s Odyssey, Financial Times/Prentice Hall

(2002) p. 217

Governments create nothing and have nothing to give but what they have first taken away — you may put money in the pockets of one set of Englishmen, but it will be money taken from the pockets of another set of Englishmen, and the greater part will be spilled on the way. Every vote given for Protection is a vote to give Governments the right of robbing Peter to pay Paul and charging the public a handsome commission on the job.

Winston Churchill, “Why I am a Free Trader,”

Chapter I in T.W. Stead’s journal Coming Men on

Coming Questions (April 13, 1905), bottom p. 9.