A GOOD LEFT-WING ARGUMENT FOR TAX REBELLION

From WorkingForChange:

People laugh off collection agency bills simply because they don't want to (or can't) pay, but quake in terror of the IRS when the money isn't just going to a private business -- it's going, in large quantities, to an institution now dedicated at the highest levels to enriching its patrons even if it means killing you. We are volunteering to buy the bullets for our own firing squads.

Why does virtually everybody volunteer?

This isn't a Freemen or Posse Comitatus-type question of the legitimacy of taxation. Quite the opposite; it's specifically because portions of everyone's labor should contribute to the collective well-being of the community (rather than, say, Warren Buffett's net worth) that our current tax system is ethically bankrupt. The issue here is where the money is going, how it's being spent, and how the spending decisions are made. People struggling to pay the rent, who can't afford health care, have no job security or retirement prospects, can't find affordable daycare, college, or anything in between for their kids, and so on, are tithing 30 percent or more of our income to people who often pay little or nothing, reap a disproportionate share of public benefits, and already have enough yachts and private luxury jets to get by.

There are a few folks saying no.

Click here for the rest.

Even though conservative anti-tax arguments tend to sound populist ("get the government off the people's backs" and all that crap), generally, a true populist position is that paying taxes is good: taxes are what we owe for the social benefits provided by the government, such as roads, the courts, police and military protection, Social Security, etc. Of course, that's in an ideal world. The above linked essay makes a pretty compelling argument that pretty much turns that view on its head. There are, indeed, many benefits that average Americans receive from the government, but it appears these days that those benefits are paid for by only a fraction of our tax dollars, and those benefits are shrinking. So where is the lion's share of our tax money going? Why, to the rich, of course, whether they're down-home oil men from Texas, usurious bankers from New York, or low-key defense contractors from California. And that kind of pisses me off. I don't know if I'm ready to become a tax resister myself, but this is certainly an idea to chew on.

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