The big government shutdown charade may be over, at least for now, but I couldn't help noticing one glaring contradiction in the system. It's almost as if government is just a massive mafia using its service monopoly as a weapon to compel obedience or something...
The specific incident I have in mind is easy to relate, but requires context. Libraries are typically hubs for public information, and every year we are swamped with people who need to file taxes online using our computers, run copies of their forms, and pick up paper forms to fill out the old-fashioned way. In years past, we have been short of forms and instruction books as a standard state of affairs, and they often didn't even start arriving until late February.
With that in mind, even as the Infernal Revenue Service was unable to pay employees to ensure people were sent refunds for being excessively extorted, and government shutdowns cut off other monopolized services people actually want, we received vast quantities of paperwork so the people could properly register their obedience to the tax farm in mid-January. So the parks part of government was shut down, but the tax, war, police state, and corporate cronyism parts never faltered. Shed no tears for the poor oppressed government goons who went without pay. Maybe you don't want your health care or any other essential services monopolized by a system that can cut off access at a whim if politicians can't cooperate.
Of course, if you don't like the government services you're getting, you should be free to shut down your tax payment. Turnabout is fair play. But that's another matter for another post, perhaps.
There are some times I will just wonder that why do we even need to pay taxes
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The only reason we need to pay taxes is because government goons will hurt us if we don't. It is legal extortion and racketeering. The justification they provide is that government has monopolized certain essential services, and the excuse for that is somehow government is supposed to be immune to the waste and abuse inherent in monopolies because of democracy, but that falls apart under any scrutiny.
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In a sense, we don't really need to pay taxes. In the past, taxes were used to pay for government services. But today, the government has a monopoly on the creation of money. So it can just print as much money as it wants and buy anything. It never needs to get money from someone else in order to pay for what it wants. We, on the other hand, MUST do what the government wants - because we need money to pay for rent, food, etc., and only the government is authorized to create it.
Still, the government imposes taxes for two reasons: First, taxes allow some of the money it creates to be destroyed. This keeps inflation lower than it otherwise would be. Second, the government needs taxes in order to perpetuate the myth that taxes pay for government services. If the public came to realize that government services are actually paid for through the depreciation of the currency, there would be a mass move out of U.S. treasuries and cash and into gold. This would cause the dollar to collapse, bringing down the entire U.S. Empire and pushing all Americans into abject poverty. Without all of those welfare programs and corporate subsidies, Americans would have no way to pay for all of these cheap goods from China and elsewhere. Instead, Americans would have to work for Chinese people, who would buy American products with their gold. Americans don't have any gold, so we would be screwed.
That's why the U.S. government keeps taxing us. It's a way of fooling us into believing the government is legitimately paying for all of these programs...so that the whole thing doesn't disintegrate.
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There isn't much of a veil now hiding the fact they believe they own us. I think they make a game of it now, to see how much they can reveal that will not be acknowledged by the masses despite the obviousness of it. For most, the admission that we are not equal, that we are indeed owned by farmers of men is so frightening it can't be entertained. To do so would make one a crazy conspiracy theorist, better to just go to the factory and put in your duty to pay and let the experts be the experts.
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"I'm free, and I have all the licenses, permits, and tax receipts to prove it, so take your crazy talk and move to Somalia!"
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