In a few minutes I will be in my town's post office mailing a check for $2,074 to the United States Treasury. This may not seem like much to many of you but this is on top of the well into five figures in income taxes I have already paid for 2011. According to the federal government I did not pay enough when I paid those five figures so I need to send in a little bit more.
Today I am painfully reminded of the sage words of Thomas Jefferson the day he became President of the United States:
"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."
From 1776-1913 there existed no income tax on anyone living in America. During that time a system of sales taxes, tariffs and excise taxes led to the average American paying about $10-$20 per year in taxes. Of course during that time we were also largely free of the massive welfare and crony capitalism state we now live in whereby economic parasites bleed our earnings in order to buy their bread (food stamps) or grow the wheat for our bread (farm subsidies for rich corporate farms).
Today, more than 60% of every dollar we pay in taxes is simply a transfer to another human being who has successfully figured out a way to live off of the fruits of plunder. In exchange for that 60% we do not get to have the welfare recipient or corporate thief come to our homes to mow our grass, wash our cars or even say, "Hey, thank you for your money...." Nothing but the hand of greed in our pockets every day - unless we don't pay enough every day and then today we get to pay even more.
The reason we did not have income taxes from the founding of our nation until the 16th amendment was ratified is because the Founders accurately considered "direct taxes" to be a taking of private property without the consent of the governed. Since the right to property was (and is supposed to be) a "natural" or "God-given" right in the Lockeian tradition, it was understood that income taxation would violate every principle our nation was founded on. To Jefferson, direct taxation would make us slaves. Slaves?
Well, yes. Think about it. If today I send the Treasury Department an envelope with no money but instead a note explaining my rights as a citizen of this nation, I will first be fined and ordered to surrender my property. If I refuse, I risk losing my home (my property). If I stand on my porch with a representation of my 2nd amendment rights the day Treasury officials arrive to take my home, I will be shot or arrested, or both.
If you can arrive in jail or in the morgue for defending your property from government theft, what else are you but a slave to that government? All slaves have learned over time that the best way to stay alive is to obey their master.
Therefore, I now leave for the post office to send my master my property in exchange for one more year of "freedom" on his plantation.
I think this is something for you to share with your students: the U.S. has now hit a record number in people who have renounced their U.S. citizenship or handed in their green cards since the IRS began publishing this list in 1998.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/us-usa-citizen-renounce-idUSBRE83F0UF20120416
I wasn't aware of this until I read this article this morning, but apparently if I move back to my birthplace in Canada and marry a Canadian girl, the American government thinks it has a right to know about all of her finances...even though she is not American and doesn't live here. If she doesn't wish to give up her privacy to this foreign government, then Uncle Sam says she and I are criminals.
I will probably be one of those to renounce my U.S. citizenship if I do move to another country because I cannot imagine having to pay taxes to BOTH the U.S. and the country I reside in. I don't see Canada asking me to file a tax return with them even though I don't live there anymore, why is America making its citizens do so?
There's only one government that arrogant and regressive. More Americans need to know about this; it's a special kind of tyranny reserved for non-resident American citizens and their families that is unmatched by almost any other nation.
I had a discussion with my humanities teacher about choice-less choices. These are choices we are coerced into making such as choosing to jump out of a burning building, marry a girl with a shotgun to your head, paying a hostage taker or paying income taxes.
ReplyDeleteHe asked us students to think of examples of choice-less choices and naturally I said taxes.
Ironically he said taxes don't meet the criteria because they are tacitly consented by the people, a term John Locke coined.
I told him that the "United States used a voluntary tax system, such as the sales tax and tariffs on imports, until the year 1913. 1913 was the year the 16th amendment was ratified which brought along the income tax. The income tax is a mandatory tax that coerces you into either choosing to pay or go to jail." I made sure to have my notes from your class on hand.
He told me to "think! Use your brain, we need taxes to live in a civilized society!"
I told him, "I am not disagreeing with you, but the income tax is a mandatory tax if you like it or not, it coerces you into either paying or going to jail, and was not used by our country until the year 1913."
He brushed me off with a "whatever" and stopped engaging me.
I suspect he was offended by this idea because he seemed rather heated.
He is a liberal no doubt, not only did he avoid a discussion that challenged his beliefs, he gave a lecture that seemed to directly contrast the philosophy found in Atlas Shrugged; That life is full of contradictions and humans are a walking oxymoron.
I still don't get why as a Mechanical Engineering major I have to take silly classes like humanities 20th century that try to instill beliefs in me I know to be dangerous and false. I'd much rather be required to take your microeconomics class(I'm not) that at least aids in my becoming of a productive individual.
Rant aside, I've managed to convert some of my friends and family from the left and right to common sense.
We all agree on one thing though, it's time to start investing in lead.
Brian
I am glad to hear you were willing to challenge your professor. Good for you! I am sure other students benefited from what you said. Saying "whatever" is a classic word for, "I have no way to defend my stupid arguments, I have been caught spewing nonsense so I am going to crawl in my hole now."
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work~!
I agree that being forced to take any class that does not pertain to what you are studying is a flawed policy. But remember, the education elitists know what is best for you and want you to be "well-rounded" so they force you to listen to liberal drivel.