Defending the Wicked Part 8: The Non-Taxpayer

We finally reach a person such that most people both on the left and right would despise. That is the non-taxpayer, the citizen who lives in society and pays no taxes whatsoever. The non-taxpayer is accused of stealing money from the government, accused of living off the system, accused of not contributing for society, and called unpatriotic.

I wrote a while back about people (presumably Jews) who cheat on their taxes here. Based on my value system there is nothing wrong with cheating on taxes if the citizen wishes to disassociate himself from the government. If the person does not want to be part of the system then he does not have to, he can leave and agree not to receive any of the benefits that come along with being a member. So if he agrees not to collect Social Security, food stamps, and not to vote then it is okay, it is his money after all and his own choice to make such a decision. In that post I defend people who cheat on taxes for such a reason. The only ones that can be condemned are the ones who cheat and live off the system, but the ones who are willing to dissolve should be left alone and not condemned for doing so. As for the argument that non-taxpayers do not contribute anything to society, that argument uses the fallacy that society and government are synonymous. They are not. Just because a non-taxpayer does not contribute anything to the government does not imply he does not contribute anything to society. It is an old socialist fallacy to equate society and government as one and the same.

I will not repeat my arguments all over again to why non-taxpayers are not doing anything wrong for it is already explained in my older post. Thus, the non-taxpayer is at worst neutral. But I will go beyond on this issue here. I will argue why the non-taxpayer is actually heroic and in fact patriotic.

It is important to understand the mentality of such a non-taxpayer. Taxation is opposed to freedom because taxation happens without the consent of the people. The individual has no option to choose to pay taxes or not, by law. He must. And if he was to refuse to then he will suffer punishment. There are many cases of people who were enslaved into iron cages (known as prisons) for refusing to pay taxes. Taxation is therefore opposed to freedom, anyone who supports a free society cannot be in favor of mandatory taxation. This non-taxpayer does not pay taxes not because he has a problem giving a portion of his money to others, but rather because he sees taxation as an opposition to freedom. Thus, he practices civil disobedience and avoids paying taxes. And he does so under the fear that he may be caught for tax evasion and thrown into an iron cage for his disobedience. It is in this manner that the non-taxpayer is actually heroic and brave.

Because taxes are stolen from citizens against their will the money can be used for what the citizen does not agree with. The non-taxpayer may not agree with the war in the Middle East. He strongly objects to it and says that it is wrong that the US killed about 200,000 people and did so much property damage in that part of the world, they are not even dangerous for us. The money of the non-taxpayer are being used to fund murder. Murder he does not agree with. Why is it wrong for the non-taxpayer to hide that money from the government if that money is being used for evil?

At this point the non-taxpayer will be accused of being a non-voter. Other citizens will tell him, "if you disagree with the war then vote for people who represent you". But he cannot be condemned for being a non-voter, I already explained in what way the non-voter is heroic back here. Furthermore, what sense does it make to the non-taxpayer to vote for people against the war? If you are unhappy with your internet service provider you do not need to go through a long hassle, which typically lasts for years, of voting for representatives, you simply stop paying them, in the same way the non-taxpayer should be able to simply stop payment to a war which he finds evil.

The last point that needs to be made is that the non-taxpayer is extremely patriotic. He is not necessarily nationalistic, but who cares, nationalism sucks anyway. But he is patriotic. He represents the ideas behind what America is supposed to stand for. America was founded as a rebellion against taxes imposed by the English. The founding fathers were terrorists from the English point-of-view, but the founders saw themselves as freedom fighters who were rebelling against the tyrannical institution of taxation imposed by the English government. The Constitution itself never originally called for direct taxation. It was forbidden. There was no income tax. I am not exactly sure how the tax system worked in 1776, I know that part of it was based on collecting user fees. But it was not direct, direct taxation was most tyrannical and so it was seen as anti-American. The income tax was only put into place in 1913, that is why it is there in the Constitution, originally it was never there. In fact, the income tax was first put in as a voluntary tax at around 1%. Over the years it grow to extraordinary large percentages and became mandatory. And that was a step away from freedom. The non-taxpayer who rebels against mandatory taxation is actually the most patriotic of all Americans, he represents the old attitude of the American revolution and for that he cannot be called unpatriotic. He is heroic.

Let us hope for one day for all of us to become non-taxpayers so that this evil monopolistic institution which violates individual and property rights, which enslaves millions of people, and killed millions of people, known as the US government collapses because of lack of funds from the people to support it.