Technically, taxation is extortion. But...

I mostly blame government-mandated indoctrination camps euphemistically called "public schools" for the inaccurate use of the cliché, "Taxation is theft."  Technically it's extortion, but with so much of society consumed with shallow distractions on cable TV or addictive gaming, how many even know what the term "extortion" means.  Of those, how many would bother to look up the word?

Here's a simple explanation of what "taxation" really is, posted on Facebook by the author of Ninety-nine Percent.

"Me: "Do you agree there's never a circumstance that I, Don Cooper, have the right, the authority to force you to give me your money?"
Them: "I guess so."

Me: "In fact, we have a word for someone who forces others to give him their money. He's called a criminal right?"
Them: "I guess so."

Me: "So now I'm elected to the government and I, Don Cooper, pass a law that says you have to give me 20% of your salary every month and if you don't I'll take it right out of your bank account. If you don't have the money in your bank account I'll send people to take your property instead. Do I, Don Cooper, have the right, the authority to do that?"
Them: "You don't but the government does."

Me: "The government has no rights, it's an institution. Institutions don't have rights, people have rights. How is someone a criminal in all circumstances for forcing you to give him your money but not a criminal for forcing you to give him your money when part of an institution called 'the government?' Same person, same act."

Understand more on this topic by clicking on this excerpt:  "So if I didn’t vote in the Gambino family elections for mob boss, I can’t complain when they extort my neighborhood for protection money? Now replace Gambino family with “government,” mob boss with “President,” and extort with “tax” and you see my point."