/liberty/ - Liberty

>>78506

>since the funds go to violent criminals

They always do. The State is no different.

>>78508

I'm aware of the argument that the state is a violent criminal, but you are forced to pay them. No one is forcing you to buy illegal drugs. So the argument seems to fall apart.

>>78506

Drugs are only lucrative because they illegal. Decriminalize all drugs and every store in the country will sell them and the cartels will lose their biggest source of income. It's not like they can very well compete will Walmart's prices, or enforce a turf war on a multi-billion dollar corporation.

>>78509

Nobody is forcing you to pay the government, either. You could just quit your job and live off neetbux. At some point you make the decision to play the statists' game to get the things you want; this is no different.

>>78506

It wouldn't be going to violent criminals if it wasn't outlawed in the first place. The default state was not prohibition.

>>78509

>No one is forcing you to buy illegal drugs

Making them illegal via the use of force qualifies as "forcing".

>>78524

>Nobody is forcing you to pay the government, either.

>>78534

It is possible for anyone to legally pay the government nothing in taxes. It involves earning less than $10,000 of taxable income per year. You can choose to be poor the same way you can choose not to use drugs.

>>78517

Why do coke though?

>>78546

>You can choose to be poor

So coercion exists only at the time someone disobeys and at every other time when nobody dares to challenge it it's not real and they're only making a choice? Why does anyone have to choose to be poor? Why can the State choose to coerce?

No might makes right answer, by the way. It is unrelated to morality.

>>78550

I don't disagree. I'm just saying that the statement "you are forced to pay them, but no one is forcing you to buy illegal drugs" is disingenuous since it's possible for you to choose not to pay the government the same way that it's possible to choose not to use illegal drugs. State coercion is equally implicit in both scenarios.

>>78506

this is why i don't buy things from the black market. most of the products are either sourced from violent cartels or stolen from ordinary people. in libertarian terms much of the black market exists due to fraud, theft, violence, and other violations of the NAP. we are not discussing theory but reality, here. even in something as relatively innocuous as marijuana cultivation often depends on theft and fraud involving other people's property and resources to become profitable.

>>78557

but the normal market with its corporations violates the NAP too.

>>78517

I agree with that and agree that drugs should be legal. But that doesn't settle whether it's moral for an individual to buy illegal drugs now, in the world we are currently living in.