Income Tax may be the most vile creation of mankind.
No matter how you look at it, income tax is nothing more than confiscated labor of the population by the government. The percent government slave you are corresponds directly to the income tax rate you pay (including social security and medicare), unless, of course, you are a public employee, or are a recipient of government largess.
Many people, when they hear my articulated abhorrence with the income tax, immediately say things like “Someone has to fund the government!” or “How can you advocate no Government?” As if there is no other possible mechanism of funding government other than income tax or that without income tax there would be no government. Wow. What happened to common sense or knowledge of basic American History?
For until 1913 this vile creation did not exist in America (except for a short time during the Civil War). And we had government. And we had funds for government. Really.
The real purpose of income tax is simply political power. The power of politicians to punish your enemies and reward your friends. The power of the politically powerful to “control” the population and socially engineer the behavior of the masses. To preserve the power of the established elites over those trying to climb up the ladder to displace them. This legacy of Woodrow Wilson, along with government-run education, are the two poison pills administered to America to bring about her eventual death.
The worst form of this monstrosity, the progressive income tax (so aptly named), embodies all aspects of social engineering and social division. Class warfare in America developed from the progressive income tax. Today class warfare represents one of the most adversarial political hotbutton issues systematically exploited by soulless politicians. Targeted tax breaks, subsidies, grants and special entitlements for political allies, donors and office holders result, while erecting barriers to economic mobility and codifying outright theft of property, ideas and industriousness against political rivals.
The income tax has shut up the Churches. Tax-Exempt status paralyzes Pastors, fearing that something said from the pulpit could be construed as political advocacy. The government idol has systematically removed Christianity and Judeo-Christian values from the formation of public policy. And some wonder what ails America.
Income tax codifies slavery and the sins of envy, theft, greed, gluttony, and a false god, government. Most importantly, income tax continually destroys an individual’s ability to become selfsufficient and financially independent. It impedes the process of building an adequate financial infrastructure for old age or catastrophic illness. And it systematically dismantles our citizen support network for dealing with and solving social problems, like hunger, poverty, disease, homelessness and drug addiction. Income tax allocates resources we otherwise could, as individuals, devote to addressing these societal ills to some labyrinth of government programs minus a gigantic administrative fee. Perversely, these government program bureaucrats have no incentive to solve anything, predictably expanding the justification for their existence by exacerbating the social problems.
This explains why no moral virtue can be gained by paying income tax. Our lives and our labor are gifts from God, our creator. No entity, not even our great and powerful federal government, has any claim on any of us. Our founding documents defined our government as the servant of the people, not vice versa. So the oft repeated biblical verse some cite justifying the atrocity of income tax “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s!” does not apply.
So why do we pay them? It is not because you and I are honest. Honesty has no part in this discussion. If a street thug says “Give me your wallet!” am I obliged to tell him where a $50 bill is hidden within it? Am I obligated to tell the thug about the $200 I have in my sock? Am I being dishonest? Of course not. And yes, I am referring to the income taxing government entity as a street thug. There is no difference.
The reason we pay income tax is that we are afraid. Income tax is an act of violence against the individual. Individuals weigh the loss of their personal property and efforts against the struggle and wounds the confrontation will ultimately entail. As of today, most of us have decided that the amount of property confiscated and liberty lost in this extortion does not outweigh the costs of fighting the Taxing Gestapo. So we comply. For now. But I feel that may change very soon.
The IRS works just like the Mafia. They know what they want, they are ruthless in getting it, and have all of the power and means necessary to back up their threats. And they are not shy about using their powers for political advantage. Just look at what (surprisingly) just came out about how the IRS specifically targeted and harassed conservative groups since 2010 with an unbelievable barrage of questions and requests no one could ever afford to answer, even if it were possible. The IRS has shown itself to be the evil arm of what has become a truly evil federal government.
The most benign form of income taxation, the flat tax, when very small, can be essentially harmless from an economic (free enterprise) standpoint and has no social engineering value. Nor can it be used as a tool by politicians to reward their cronies or punish their rivals. But it still concedes the wholly incorrect moral concept that the government has a right to confiscate labor from its citizen population.
No, we pay income taxes for the same reason the small business owner in New Jersey pays off the wise guy offering “protection” in the neighborhood. We are paying for protection against the ever present threatened violence levied by the enforcement agency of the taxing entity. We don’t comply because we want to help the poor or care for our fellow man. We can certainly do a much better job of that without the IRS.
We pay income tax out of fear and fear alone.