"Taxation is theft!" is an excellent summary of the evils of the State. There's an important extension of that idea. If you pay taxes, you're actively contributing to the evil of the State.
The parasites' scam continues because the vast majority pays taxes/tribute without questioning it. If you pay taxes, you're partially responsible for all the evils of the State. If you pay taxes, you're paying for aggression against your fellow human beings.
Taxes are used for war, corporate welfare, enforcing stupid laws, and aggressing against other humans. If you pay taxes, you're contributing to these evils.
Not only is there a selfish reason for avoiding taxes, there's also a moral reason. You should avoid paying taxes, because you should protect your property. You should avoid paying taxes, because taxes actively support evil.
Now, someone will object:
There's a criminal gang that will shoot me if I refuse to pay. Is it immoral for me to pay them their tribute?The victim of a crime is not as responsible as the thief. If you don't take precautions to protect your property, then you're partially responsible if someone steals it and uses it for evil.
If you give a loaded gun to a child and he hurts someone, are you responsible? Similarly, are you responsible when you give your property to insane State bureaucrats? Taxes give wealth and power to mentally incompetent parasites.
Agorism is a viable strategy for resisting evil and protecting your property. If you don't attempt agorism, then you're actively contributing to evil.
Once you understand "Government is a criminal terrorist organization!", then it becomes a question of tactics. "What is the most effective strategy for protecting my property from theft?" is a different attitude than "I'm helpless in the face of this criminal!"
Suppose that every day, on the way home from work, you were mugged and the robbers stole half your money. You complain to the police and they say "Sorry, we're too busy!", because they're taking bribes from the criminals. You complain to other people, and they say "The mugger who robs me every day takes 55% of my money! Be happy that your mugger only takes half your money!" You would confront the mugger directly yourself, but the mugger has other associates who will assault you if you defend yourself. You would walk home another way, but there's a mugger on every corner; the first mugger gives you a receipt so that the others don't rob you also.
Fighting this criminal gang on your own is hopeless. You're outnumbered, and the criminals have superior resources. Rather than accepting your status as a permanent victim, you might decide to find a group of people who work together to protect themselves from organized crime.
If everybody resisted at the same time, then the scam would collapse. The vast majority pay without resisting, making the scam profitable. Because the vast majority pay without resisting, the criminals can afford to spend a lot of resources pursuing those who refuse to pay their tribute.
Agorism is a strategy where you can protect your property from theft, even if the vast majority are still paying their tribute to the criminals.
Right now, I don't have any options for protecting my property from theft. Hopefully, in a few years, I'll have more opportunities for freedom. I have a wage slave job where all my income is reported to the State/IRS, and taxes are automatically deducted from my paycheck. As long as I work in the slave economy, I must pay tribute to my masters.
I'm sympathetic with people who pay their tribute for now, while seeking freedom. That's what I'm doing! However, if you accept your status as victim, then no escape is possible. A mental shift towards freedom is a prerequisite for a physical shift toward freedom. "The criminals are too powerful! I'm not resisting!" is a self-defeating attitude.
There's a herding effect. If you're seeking freedom by yourself, you're very likely to get caught. If a large group of people are seeking freedom, then the odds of each one getting caught is small. If there's enough agorists, then tax resister insurance becomes a viable business, further decreasing the risk.
In California, there are so many people growing marijuana that the State police only arrest/kidnap/assault the biggest farmers. A large number of people breaking a law makes enforcement of that law difficult/impractical/impossible.
If everybody stopped paying taxes at the same time, then the scam would immediately end. The State thugs and bureaucrats would walk off their jobs when their paycheck bounces. Agorism is a strategy where people can stop supporting evil one at a time.
Seeking freedom is risky. Letting criminals steal most of your life and property is also risky. As the rate of looting and pillaging increases, the uncertain risk of agorism becomes more attractive than the certain risk of theft by the State. If you're careful, the risk faced by an agorist is low.
This is an important extension of "Taxation is theft!" You have a moral obligation to not pay taxes. The profits of taxation are used to hurt other people. If you pay taxes, you're facilitating organized crime. If you pay taxes without resisting, you're making it easier for the parasites to crack down on people who seek freedom. If you pay taxes, you're contributing towards my enslavement.
7 comments:
FSK: One of your best arguments for agorism yet!
Not only is paying taxes immoral but it can also be dangerous. As I talked about here: http://re-educationthroughtruth.blogspot.com/2009/09/tax-payers-may-fund-their-own-death.html
It is possible that you can be accidentally killed by the police during an altercation, in that case your tax dollars helped to fund the police dept....therefore you have partially contributed to fund your own death!
By your logic, you should also regard using Federal Reserve Notes as immoral, since the fact that everyone uses them is the only reason the State can buy what it needs by printing money. By using FRN's, you are paying inflation tax.
But I agree with Ayn Rand: morality ends at the point of the gun. You can't blame the victim of the crime for the crime. You can't blame individuals for using FRN's and paying their taxes. You can blame them for other kinds of apathy, but not that.
Usage of FRNs is definetly up there in immorallity with paying taxes; its all part of the same immoral slave system.
The population who use FRNs and pay taxes are not evil like the bankers and politicians who set-up and maintain the scam but they are still guilty of being negligent. Tyranny is only able to happen because of mass-ignorance. Ignorance is not a valid defense.
In this case we are victims true. I am as guilty as the next for paying taxes amd using FRNs, but we have to realize how our actions as individuals add up to the greater sum.
Ordinary people will always be sheep, they need leaders who can guide them. It is really a crisis of leadership. A good leader can lead people to victory. Some leadership and direction is necessary.
I see Gordon Brown in Parliament on television saying that he won't raise the inheritance tax threshold etc., so his government can spend the tax money so as to simulate the economy i.e. give the money to bankers, MPs, accountants auditing the MPs' expenses, state employees and highly paid quango employees.
It almost sounds noble if you don't translate the first bit.
Not raising the inheritance threshold means throwing some people out of their own homes into the street, because they can't afford the eye-watering 40% tax rate on houses after the inheritance tax threshold. People buy property when cheap, it goes up a vast amount and then their family can't afford to pay the inheritance tax on it.
There is nothing nice about chucking people out of the homes they have lived in for decades!
Well then, who forces us all to use FRNs? If I don't use FRNs and work for beer, there isn't much brutality that is going to happen.
I don't think that we could use Rand's Morality rule in our defense. One could say that we are "forced" to do something about even a mildest encouragement or peer pressure. Yet, it is not precisely "the point of a gun". I conclude that we are not forced to use FRNs, even if we are pleased to excuse ourselves that way.
I think that, as I learned from a previous post (and felt so for some time), that the government is using the principle of 150. If they tried to pull that FRN crap on 147 person community, it would not be possible for us to relate our knowledge to every member of the community and to boycott the FED at once.
I think they purposefully create larger constructs specifically to remove the common consciousness.
OK, I will concede that cowardice is a moral failing.
But so is foolhardiness.
(Read Aristotle if you don't get my point.)
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