Taxes themselves are not theft, but the misuse of those taxes (such as waging purposeless war, refurbishing your gifted airplane emoluments, funneling money to a family member’s private business, putting public money into crypto scams, or vandalizing public monuments) is a kind of theft.

“From each according to their means to each according to their greed.”

-Marx Twain probably

I had an opportunity to converse with one of the people whose work resulted in those body scanners they use in the airport. He brought this up casually as a kind of boast, like he genuinely believed the product of his work was amazing and essential. He thought I was being an asshole for being unimpressed and that being unimpressed was a personal slight. He had no concept of the down sides of such technology, or the actualized potential for abuse, or the reality that the amount of abuse vastly outnumbers the successful intended uses.

Maybe that kind of work takes a certain mindset, like how it’s easier to get rich as a sociopath?