"Pay to get paid [a wage or salary]", certainly. Surely you have
enough imagination to think of many ways to generate gains without
triggering payroll taxes. You'll probably still be liable for other
taxes, but, hey, that's the price you pay to the state for defending
your property*.
In the middle ages, merchants and bankers went through great
contortions with contracts to take gains in forms other than
interest, to avoid the declaration of usury by the church.
In our modern times, merchants and bankers go through great
contortions with contracts to take gains in forms other than
interest, to avoid taxation at income rates by the IRS.
-Dave
* leading to point (2) of your suggested ground rules. Any society
can have a notion of ownership of property, but how are you
proposing to prevent taking or impairing the use of somebody else's
property without invoking either a state, an improved state of
mankind, or bilateral coercion? One view of property is that it is
that which the state is willing to defend (on your behalf) against
all other parties.