Should people who are denied common rights be exempt from paying taxes?

Let me start by saying that all peoples should be treated equally with dignity and respect. But there are some in our society who wish to deny rights to minorities of all sorts in this country.

Perhaps as long as the government does not offer equal rights to all peoples in this country then the affected minority should at least be exempt from paying taxes. Why should they have to pay a government that does not protect them or treat them equally?

This post is mainly aimed at the gay marriage issue but it has countless other applications as well.

History is being made there. What would the government do without the tax dollars of millions of oppressed and discriminated people?

Is it too late to secede?

Failure by the government to live up to its responisibilties is ground for "we the people" to declare independence. Or so says the Declaration Of Independence signed 4 July 1776.

At what point do I stop and ask myself, "Well, that's enough. It's been thirty-five years now I've been paying my taxes. And I still don't have a voting representative in Congress, or two senators in the Senate, because my home is Washington, DC. I still can't sponsor my partner to come home with me to my city or to my country and live with me here, although if he was a woman I could marry her and bring her in as my lawfully wedded wife."

This is the question I ask myself. Why should I pay taxes? What am I getting in return?

You pay equally into the system, yet you are treated unequally by the system. Why should you support a system that plays favorites with basic human rights?

You're being ripped off.

"No taxation without representation!"

I don't think residents of DC should pay taxes unless and until they receive the same Congressional representation afforded all other residents of this country.

And know of a prime example. Person in Tallahassee, bought some land, divided it up, and built 5 duplexes on it. Now, there are room for 6, but the powers that be arbitrarily decided he needed to leave the last lot natural, as a green/buffer zone. He still has to pay property taxes on the whole area, yet has been denied the right to dispose of his legal property as he sees fit.


P.S. Before anyone asks, this is covered by the "countless other applications as well" clause.

I do have sympathy for the lack of representation argument, but it's not as though 100 percent of taxes go to the Federal Government, or that no services such as schools, roads, police, and so on exist.

... as long as you get services, you don't need democracy or rights? My, there are quite a few countries around the world, including those run by everything from military dictatorships to totalitarian regimes and monarchies, who would agree wholeheartedly with such concepts.

I also get tired of people who have all sorts of reasons not to pay their fair share. People who don't currently have children in public schools seem to think they have absolutely no need to support public education. That's just one example.

I really hate it that so much of my tax money goes to support illegal wars, and that so many of the rich don't pay their fair share. We're seeing a complete breakdown of the social contract as expressed in this thread.

Democracy and civil rights are not a function of taxes nor vice versa. I suppose we could move to a purely libertarian kind of thing, where everyone simply pays fees for whatever services they use. There'd be no public schools in a world like this. I, personally, wouldn't care, because I've sent my kids to a private school for the last eight years. All roads could be toll roads. Police and fire by subscription only. I guess in that kind of world all "taxes", which would really be user fees, would be fair. Of course, not sure how we'd pay for the military then.