Of course, the regressives and other enemies of liberty will tell you it is because people (especially those awful libertarians and sickening followers of Christ) are greedy and selfish, have no real compassion for the poor or people who wear different skin (or clothes) than they do, and the whole long litany we hear constantly.
Clearly, TPOL and many of our readers disagree. (So we are even more evil, right?) But the rebellion against taxes is real, and the reasons people are rebelling are real and growing.
Put simply, more and more people are finding not just that the total system is a form of slavery and de facto ownership of ALL property by governments. Not just intolerable from the point of view of lovers of liberty. But unable to be sustained, and beggaring more and more people.
Consider this from a correspondent of TPOL, a county commissioner in Wyoming, which is one State trying (and so far, failing) to deal with property taxes, though one of the States without an income tax.
Sound familiar?
We have the impression that this is not uncommon. Nor is it uncommon for County Treasurers to actually seize real estate and sell it by auction to whomever, for failure to pay taxes. We have a relative that lost half-ownership to the family homestead in another State when the County Clerk did not update addresses correctly and the notices were apparently delivered to the wrong mail address (or just plain lost).
(We invite readers to share similar stories that they know of.)
Is this a “selfish, greedy” reason to rebel? Should not this old woman, who benefitted so much from all the wonderful things provided to her as she grew up, worked, raised children and then grandchildren, and now receive a monthly ‘entitlement’ check, pay “her fair share?” Just like the ultra-rich? After all, fair is fair, no?
We used to joke about how senior “seasoned” citizens sometimes didn’t get enough money for real human food and had to live on cat food or dog food some of the time. (Have you priced dog and cat food recently? And we don’t mean the fancy refrigerated kind.)
Even some libertarians will point out that she should have planned more carefully for her golden years, and laid by money to support her old age.
Of course, we were cleaning out the kitchen recently, and found an old tea mug (we don’t drink coffee) that quoted the 30-somethings back in the 1970’s in surveys. They didn’t believe that Social Security would be around when the time came for them to retire. Of course, now many of those same people (in the 70s and 80s) are delighted to find out that they were wrong. They do collect Social Security.
But at what cost to them, to their families and friends, to our economy and society?
And just for grins, how far does that Social Security actually go, these days? Sodas that cost a dime out of a pop machine back then are now replaced by sodas that cost two dollars, or more. Gasoline that cost a quarter a gallon now costs more than four dollars! Electricity that was a nickel a kW-hr then is now twenty-five or thirty cents. (Plus all the add on fees, and lest we forget, the amazing amount in taxes on the sodas, electricity, gasoline, and everything else, that governments rake in.
And of course, the number of governments seems to get bigger and bigger all the time. Mostly with “carefully restricted” power to gather taxes. (The Jews in the First Century in Judea and Galilee thought that having a tax collector in every town was too much. Oh, for the good old days!) Federal taxes, State taxes, county taxes, municipal taxes, transit district taxes, library district taxes, sports arena taxes, and on and on.
We suggest that the real question to ask is not why are people getting more and more rebellious when it comes to taxes. Rather, it is a bigger question. Why haven’t people really revolted yet against taxes?
And when we answer that question, the next one is inevitable. How long will it be before there is a real revolt against taxes? Not just a “throw the bums out, and elect new ones,” so-called rebellion. Not even a tar-and-feather sort of thing. But a “hang ’em all, or put ’em up against that wall over there,” sort of rebellion.
Do we really, really want to know?
Yet another reason why government is bad for you, me, and progress
As we write this, we hear that SpaceX’s first orbital flight of the Starship was not a total success. But not a failure (despite how some have claimed that it was). Good for them.
But the entire saga should remind us that government is incredibly bad, not just when it does bad things, but when it tries to do go things. Like promote space travel.
Courtesy of the social media group Aerospace Now:
SpaceX is not perfect. Its founder, owner, and actual manager is far, far from perfect. But compared to the FedGov? Really…
Yes, SpaceX is a government contractor. Just like Northrup-Grumman, Boeing, the United Space Alliance, and hundreds of other firms, present and past. All subject to the inanities of government regulations. Regulations implementing laws that supposedly prevent corruption, theft, and other dire things. But ultimately seem to just benefit corrupt bureaucrats, congresscritturs, and companies. Beltway bandits.
So is SpaceX different? Apparently. Like some government contractors, SpaceX appears to be at least honest enough to sell a service, to sell products, and not simply to rob the taxpayer. Even when having to work with the likes of NASA, DoW, and DOT, to name a few. In essence, with SpaceX, NASA is buying commercial – off the shelf, so to speak. And that is, we submit, far, far better than the usual government procurement process. Where hundreds or thousands of pages of specs, diagrams, instructions, orders, change orders, and more generate more spending, more money in the pockets of certain people for really accomplishing very little besides the inevitable paperwork.
But it doesn’t mean that the company is completely honest. It isn’t a very high standard to be more moral, more honest, than government. Of course, government is doing its best to corrupt not just SpaceX but every other company, from the local convenience store and pizza shop to any large firm that hasn’t succumbed to the temptations and wickedness of human government.
We still like to think that SpaceX is at least a tiny bit of fresh air.
What are your thoughts?