“Mister LaFond, are you a Libertarian, an anarchist, or a tribalist? It’s hard to pin down your politics other than it is hairy. How would you expect a country to operate without a tax base? Do you have any solutions or alternatives to our current system? Sure, none of us like taxes but they are necessary. What do you consider a just tax?”
-Jesse
I have no politics.
I do not believe in solutions.
I believe in letting the weak fall.
I practice fractional autonomy, which is basically stealing every little slice of freedom I can from where I seethe in the rancid bowels of this global police state. The key is living in my own mind and using it as a platform to aggressively probe the surrounding world.
I also practice ‘warrior ethics’ which mean I do what I can to protect family, friends and associates, forge reciprocal bonds with other men, and that I only prey on those that are physically stronger or more numerous than I—basic Conan comic book philosophy.
Once, on these shores, a country defied and defeated a world spanning empire without a tax base. We still protect much of our nation from fire through volunteer fire departments, which is basically how George Washington ran his army—except that he’d have your ass shot if you tried to quit.
Police
Police departments only serve the government and businesses. They cannot and do not do anything to substantially protect individuals and their homes from predators. The police are excellent at protecting businesses. Their other main strength is in disarming and suppressing the population. The suppression has not gone so well. However, most of our population has been disarmed, which means most of us our ready targets for predators. The police impinge on your personal security by preventing you from protecting yourself.
I suggest that businesses within the municipality are taxed based on security needs—like a housing appraisal—to cover police costs. The state should likewise level a tax on businesses with outlets in more than one municipality to cover state police costs. Likewise, the federal police forces should be funded by taxing corporations doing business in more than one state. This would greatly reduce the size of the police state and will never happen.
The Military
The United States successfully defended itself without a tax base beyond tariffs. The main purpose of any large tax base is to prosecute foreign wars.
I would suggest a volunteer state-based national guard and coast guard, funded by subscriptions.
The Air Force and Army should be funded by a tax on corporations—national and foreign—with property and physical assets in the U.S., supplemented by subscriptions.
The Navy and Marine Corp should be funded by taxes on all foreign businesses with outlets and or assets in the U.S. and any U.S. corporation with assets outside of the U.S., or which does business with foreign companies or other nations, or operates shipping or air traffic.
Any war gamer who looks at a map of the world will see that the U.S. is the most defensibly piece of real estate on earth. Just like the British, naval and air forces are really all we need to keep off invaders. I would add letting the Texas Rangers and border state militias shoot illegal immigrants to that mix.
Other Government Functions
Those functions that are not practical to privatize should be funded by the property tax, which does not amount to slavery, but rather a contract, as the state upholds the property owner’s rights and supplies other services like water and road networks crucial to property maintenance.
All public schools should be abolished along with mandatory education. I am completely self-educated outside of 1 year of tutoring and 1 year of special education class, and have actually managed to write a book or two—I forget which as the math tutor was so damned cute I just didn’t pay much attention to the dots and dashes. Public schools are the enemy of mankind.
Slave Taxes
The income tax is an abomination that has found favor with very few societies in the past. Two examples from young people I spoke to yesterday should suffice.
Tia and her husband, Jamal, each work two jobs to support their three children. They have not bought into the government’s welfare program and have decided to raise a real family as husband and wife. That these people should even have to go through the hassle and expense of filing a tax return is outrageous. If left to their own devices they should rear three people like Glen below, instead of the drug addicts and drug dealers that most welfare parents produce.
Glen is a 25 year old university graduate who wants to own a business and a home. Right out of college—graduated debt free through hard work shrewd money management and excellent grades—he bought a high efficiency hybrid vehicle and landed a 60K a year job with good benefits. Glen wants to get married and have kids but not until he gets into a house that he is buying. Unfortunately, he is stuck renting to a large corporation because he pays out over 20k in taxes. If this kid—who started working when he was 13—was not being taxed he’d already be running a business on the side and employing a couple of workers.
The income tax only makes sense to a nation that is fighting aggressive foreign wars on behalf of large moneyed global interests, as it actually stifles domestic economic growth. On top of that, it amounts to perpetual debt slavery. If I told you had to give me one of every four dollars you made or I’d lock you up in my basement, that would be a crime—even if I promised to keep people from mugging you.
But it’s okay if I a professional liar in a suit says its necessary?
I'd like to point out a couple of points to Jesse. At a state level there are already existing income tax free models. See Texas, Nevada, Florida, etc.. Not perfect though, those particular examples offset revenue by having a slightly higher sales tax.
At a federal level, while the assertion you made is true(taxes are necessary), it is only due to the unsustainable amount of money our federal government spends.
As far as actual income tax goes, that only represents less than half of our governments revenue. Without the national debt and unneccesary what I call high dollar fuckery, some call expenditures it begins to be more clear how we could sustain with a significantly lessened income tax code or none at all.
You sound like a man that runs a business Sir—which makes you unredeemably evil, and your fiscal opinion suspect!
Seriously, it is amazing how much sensible truth you spoke in a few lines when PHD's on Sunday morning news shows spend minutes obscuring the truth.