A Libertarian Minimal State is a Contradiction in Terms

Even a Minimal State Would Still Require Taxes

Free markets require strong government at the local, state and federal levels, and a strong government requires the ability to tax, or in some way collect revenue, under threat of fine or imprisonment for evaders.   That’s the irony of our current divided politics -- property rights depend on a state that is willing and able to tax and spend. Say this before a libertarian audience and watch their heads explode.  

However, for libertarians  government, is inherently evil since it rests on the ability to coercively tax and regulate property.   That’s what libertarians believe.  “There’s no government like no government” reads a popular libertarian button.  But here’s the problem with that  -- any government weak enough to “drag into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub,”  as libertarian and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist advocates, would simply not be able to defend anyone’s rights.   Freedom costs money - tax money.  Some examples:

• Police protection - Total cost for running 15,363 local police agencies, sheriffs offices performing law enforcement functions, and primary state police agencies, employing a total of 1,040,728 officers came to $55.4 billion in 2007 (the most recent estimates I’ve found so far; from “Local Police Departments, 2007,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, pgs 8 -10).   Adjusted for inflation that’s $63.25 billion in today’s dollars.
• Prisons for lawbreakers - Total cost for maintaining prisons and jails in the United States for an estimated 2,304,115 inmates in 2008 - about $75 billion (“The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration,” Center for Economic Policy and Research, June 2010, pgs. 1-9)  To their credit, libertarians would decriminalize drugs, so minus the estimated 561,500 inmates incarcerated for drug offenses, that would still require approximately $62 billion (adjusted for inflation) for incarcerating those accused of violent crimes,  property violations and other offenses.  
• Maintaining a system of law courts - Total cost just for the 89 U.S. District Courts in 2014 is an estimated $6.5 billion (“Federal Court Funding,” ABA, www.americanbar.org).  I have not found a figure yet for total state and local court expenditures, but you get the point, it’s a lot.
• Military Defense - The total U.S. Defense budget is estimated to be an incredible $994 billion, as compiled by Winslow Wheeler of the Center for Defense Information.  If we omit military retirement costs, veterans affairs, something called “International Affairs”, and other expenditures not directly associated with operating America’s current army, navy, air force, marines and coast guard, then what is called “National Defense Spending” on military manpower, equipment, bases, and operations is more like around $647 billion in 2013.  This is far higher than libertarians recommend.  If, for starters, we use the Libertarian Party’s proposed 60% cut in military spending, that would bring defense spending down to around $260 billion - a very hefty sum.

So, if we take as our model the libertarian super minimal government, responsible only for defending individual rights to life and property, we still have at least $400 billion in spending!

Keep in mind that the above list is only a partial one.  There are many other functions currently performed by local, state, and federal governments that go towards defending individual rights such as enforcing anti-pollution laws, patent and copyright protection, maintaining property title and land survey records, funding elections, intelligence collection on matters relating to national defense, enforcing the right to legal counsel and trial by jury, just to name a few.   How would libertarians pay for all of this?  They couldn’t of course.  But in the Shangri-La world of free market fundamentalism, that’s a good thing!

We need a government with some form of taxing authority in order to enjoy our freedom and actually have it defended.