Any society must do two big things: protect itself from other societies, and maintain internal order. Even the most rabid libertarian agrees there must be a military and an internal police force with systems to protect property, secure persons, and enforce contracts. That means bureaucracies that must be paid.
How to pay has varied tremendously. Small tribes were based on family obligation. Agricultural civilizations used payment in kind. Many empires simply looted. And, of course, there were taxes (for the military king) and tithes (for the social service priests).
After the industrial revolution, things have become very complicated. How to pay for necessary bureaucracy (and what is truly necessary to maintain that society) is uncharted territory in current civilizations. Everyone hates taxes and fees unless they fall on someone else. Hidden taxes and fees are hard to enforce and rarely bring in enough. Nobody is quite sure how to tax capital to retain meritocracy and production.
Two other methods have been tried. One is to simply let rulers buy their way to power and then loot and extort to get even richer. It worked for the Romans and it’s close to the democratic election system today (with elections bankrolled by corporations and special interests).
The other is donations as in religious tithes or today’s non profit gifts or internet pleas.
Purchase of power inevitably becomes unbearably corrupt and destroys the social fabric. Donations tend to clump into smaller and smaller cliques (such as immediate family) which also shatters society.
Perhaps there is a solution out there somewhere, or maybe simple evolution will provide a working methodology. It’s worked so far.
