April 15th, tax day for yet another year! I knew that everyone would be happy about that. How do I feel about taxes? Well that would probably best be summed up by a quote that I found;
“The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay… If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.” —Frederic Bastiat
Our Constitution is pretty blunt about taxation, at least in the beginning it was. Now, after several generations of politicians have tweaked it, and such. We have an income tax, a this tax, a that tax, then there is the seemingly ever broadening base of state and local taxation. Is there a perfect answer? I seriously doubt that there is one.
The “Flat tax” is a step in the right direction but really has very little support in the places where it counts. Pretty much the same for the other tax theories that I have heard about.
One thing is certain though. As the tax burden grows constantly, the already existent black market will expand tremendously, along with the resultant crime that follows. That will be something that affects people on an everyday basis, not just in mid-April. It certainly is sad that in “the land of the free” you can buy a full auto AK47 for less, substantially less, than the legal semi-automatic version. That cargo theft is one of the fastest growing crimes, with cigarettes and booze being the most targeted goods. Those just happen to be things that are heavily restricted, and in many places taxed at outrageous levels. But, when you have a government that has to add “explosives” to the name and duties of a rogue agency that fairly regularly killed Americans for practicing their rights what can you expect?
For those among us that are collectivist’s and think that Free market Economics are a pipe dream, think about this: Aesop’s fable about The Goose that laid the Golden Egg.
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