This is such a bad faith argument. Society has largely agreed that welfare is a valuable thing to do, from disability to social security. Calling taxation theft just says that you aren't able to be rational about this.

> What is it about robbing one group of people to pay another that you would expect to "work"?

Well, let's say we get one or two more breakthroughs in AI, and it succeeds in automating literally every job that can be done at a computer. And then it starts investing heavily in robotics. This would render human labor as uncompetitive as horse labor is today.

At this point, you have two basic scenarios: something like UBI, or (if the machines are less cooperative) John Conner.

This actually seems at least as likely these days as a warmed over libertarian argument that, "Taxes are really just slavery!"

> robbery: the action of taking property unlawfully from a person or place by force or threat of force.

The language of Shakespeare and Seuss deserves better than this mindlessness. It is not robbery because it is not unlawful.