Posted on April 14, 2011 on http://theemptiness.info/2011/04/taxes-are-the-price-we-pay-to-avoid-ass-rape/
I apologize for the vulgarity, but I figured this title would be catchy and get my point across effectively. It is tax time again in the so-called “United States” and I thought I would make a few points about taxes. Contrary to Oliver Wendell Holmes, taxes are not the price we pay for civilization. Rather they are the price we pay to stay out of prison, where according to many movies and TV shows we can expect to get raped by large hairy men.
When the people that claim to be the state demand income tax from you as a so-called “citizen” they are really making a prior claim to your body. They are saying that they own your body. If you generate income with your body and do not pay the state a certain percentage of that income — a percentage which will be unilaterally determined by them with no input from you — they will exercise their claim to your body, take possession of it and put it in a cage where you can expect to get ass-raped. In effect taxes are rent you pay to the state on the use of your own body. If you do not use it in ways that the state approves of they reserve the right to lock it up and even kill it.
Taxes are not voluntary, no matter what anybody tells you. Even those that may support taxation and tell you that they are happy to pay taxes cannot possibly prove that they pay voluntarily. Taxes are extracted from people with threats of kidnapping and violence. The liberal that claims they pay taxes voluntarily is subject to the same violence should they not pay as anyone else. In order for them to actually show that they pay voluntarily, they would have to first show that they are somehow exempt from the penalty of violence.
Recently the famous author Steven King was at a pro-government rally with a bunch of liberals. He pointed out that his income was in the millions, yet he was only paying 28% in taxes. His challenge to the government was “Why aren’t I paying 50%?” The answer is because he does not want to. The so-called “US Treasury Department” maintains a website where they offer instructions on how to make a voluntary gift to the “United States.” So if King really wants to pay 50% no one is stopping him. I would say the same to anyone that thinks taxes are too low or that the government needs more money. Lead by example. Even if you don’t make a voluntary gift, certainly do not deduct anything on your tax return. Tell the government to keep more of your income.
We can assume that King has not made a voluntary contribution for the same reason that Warren Buffet, George Soros and Michael Moore probably have not. They do not actually want to do so. They want to keep their money. The “US Treasury” maintains another website where they track the voluntary gifts they have received. As of this writing in 2011 they received $645,917.73. We can safely assume this is less than 50% of King’s income, not to mention the other three.
Of course whenever you complain about taxes the response you will likely get from statists is that you are party to the non-existent “social contract” or that taxes go to help the poor. Few people will argue that you should pay taxes to kill poor people half way around the world with robot planes, maintain a bloated military industrial complex or pay for bailouts and subsidies to big corporations. Never mind that these are the bulk of the government’s activities. No, you should pay taxes for the poor. This argument fails on many levels.
In a society without taxes there would be nothing stopping the bleeding hearts that are so generous with your hard earned money from helping the poor. A good question to ask is whether or not the person saying this believes in democracy. If they do, then presumably taxes go to help the poor only if more than 50% of the voting population want them to. That would be more than enough people to get together and work out some programs to help the poor if there were no taxes. If that many people really want to help the poor, there is no need for the state. If the liberal statist doesn’t actually think that more than 50% of the people want to help the poor, then they would have to actually be advocating for dictatorship. Either way one of their principles has to go. Either they have to admit that that there is in fact no need for taxes to help the poor, or they have to admit that they do not really believe in democracy. The liberal is unlikely to be comfortable with either of these positions.
The same argument applies to any other service that the government claims to provide. If in fact this is a service that more than 50% of the voters want, then clearly there is enough demand that there is no need for a central apparatus of coercion to be in charge of administering it. Nor is there any evidence that taxes are payments for services in the first place. The state grants itself the right to levy taxes. Nowhere does it say that it owes anyone any services in return. The state is under absolutely no legal obligation to provide anything to anyone. If they do provide anything it is only because they feel like it and only in the quantity and quality that they choose. Taxes are by far the worst possible way to fund public services.
Just a few thoughts to consider while you do your taxes and think about how much easier your life would be if you were allowed to keep the full product of your labor.