Category Archives: Taxation

Reject Socialism, Taxation

Mafia Supporter

A had a Facebook conversation with a guy who can’t answer why it’s acceptable for government to force people to pay for things (aka theft). In fact, the vast majority of people are just like him. I’ve asked this question to many people and have never got a good answer. Here’s the conversation:

ME: Taxation is theft. Abolish public school.

John: Then you need to live on a little island all by yourself?? And be cut off from the rest of society that is funded by those very tax dollars?? That I know you have some sort of benefits from??

ME: So you have no problem with forcing people to pay for things they don’t want?

John: Take your child to a private school and pay for it yourself?? Thats your right.. No one stopping you.. But not with tax dollars..

ME: you seem to be refusing to respond to my argument. Why do you think it’s acceptable to force people to pay for things they don’t want?

I’m opposed to forcing you to pay for other people’s children’s private school tuition. I’d appreciate you not being in favor of forcing me to pay for things I don’t want.

John: You have the answer?? You just don’t like the one that was provided.. Go whare you please?? For your children education.. If you go private?? No public tax dollars are going with you..

ME: So if you lived in certain parts of New York at various times in the past where the Mafia forced people to pay for protection, you’d tell the victims something like, “Tough luck. If you don’t like living in Mafia-run areas, you should move.”?

John: Even back then?? That was and is a option..

But seriously the mafia has nothing to do with our public education system.. So your analogy is not accurate..

ME: You haven’t answered the question. Why is it acceptable for government to force people to pay for things they don’t want? You’ve suggested an option for what to do about the situation but you haven’t explained why it’s acceptable.

The analogy between government and the Mafia is perfect. The Mafia provided services and forced people to pay for the services. Feel free to explain why it was acceptable for the Mafia to force people to pay them–not what their victims’ options were, but why it’s acceptable.

John: Do you at your place of employment have to abide by there rules ,regulations, policies?? If so you should know why? If you don’t like any of that?? You are free to leave and go somewhere else?? Something applies for the school district.

As your work place is? Also school district?? Their not a democracy… They have here rules, policies, standards, curriculum to meet.. Theres no difference.

ME: You are unable to answer my simple question I’ve asked over and over. You can have the last word.

Basic Economics, Capitalism, Christianity, Taxation

Socialists Are the Greedy Ones

This whole video is worth watching, of course. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything bad by John Stossel. However I’m just going to comment on what Hugo Chavez does at the 2:00 to 2:08 mark. He says, “Expropriate it!”, referring to the private business they were looking at.

It struck me what a greedy dirtbag he must be. He wants something, so he just takes it by threat of force. That is what all unrighteous government is based on, and the bigger, more socialist the government is, the more blatant they are about it.

Marx and the socialists on the street like to say that capitalists are the greedy ones, and anyone can certainly commit the sin of being greedy. However, capitalism doesn’t require greed. Socialism is built on, and requires greed and covetousness.

Capitalists get rich (in most cases) by serving people. In whatever business you’re in, you make a profit by serving people. Some businesses are more suited to serving a greater number of people than others. Sports and entertainment people can serve a greater number of people with their work hours than a guy who mows lawns, for example. A guy who figures out a way to mow lawns more efficiently and more cheaply than his competition, will please more people than a guy who doesn’t, and will make more money. People being motivated to make more money honestly, aren’t greedy.

Socialists are greedy. They covet free stuff either for themselves or for others, and they may even be willing to personally, voluntarily sacrifice, but as socialists, they ultimately want to force other people to pay as well.

Let’s take a local issue as an example. Socialists want more money for the local public school system. The school district is more than willing to accept their donations, and they may very well donate. But a socialist isn’t happy until everyone is forced to give more, whether they believe the school system is a worthy cause or not. Socialists like that are the greedy ones, who are committing the sins of covetousness and greediness.

Hugo Chavez demonstrates that sinfulness perfectly in those few seconds of this video.


Abolish The Police, Basic Economics, Capitalism, Christianity, End Public School, Reject Socialism, Taxation

Slippery Slope to Socialism

I spoke with a couple people demonstrating for universal healthcare on 9th and Royal Gorge today. I asked them what exactly they’re wanting, and they wouldn’t really commit to anything specific, saying there are several different proposals being discussed in the state legislature.

I pointed out that whatever they’re advocating, if it’s based on taxation, and forcing people to pay, they’re committing the sin of covetousness, and they’re in favor of government theft.

The guy said we already fund fire services, public schools, etc by taxation. I told him we homeschool, and don’t receive a dime from the government, yet I’m forced to pay for the education of other people’s children under threat of confiscation of my property. We learn in kindergarten that it’s wrong to force people to participate in something they don’t want to do.

But he is absolutely correct in pointing out that if I were to take the position that it is just fine to fund public school, fire departments, and police services by socialism, then it is perfectly fine to fund everyone’s healthcare by socialism. Any line that you want to draw between public school and public healthcare is completely arbitrary. There is no logical reason why one would be acceptable, and the other unacceptable.

That is why unless we take a stand against all socialism, we will lose this debate. Our society will be based on covetousness, unless we start applying Scripture to the public discourse, and appeal to God’s law written on people’s hearts–even socialists. It is equally wrong for conservatives and Christians to covet taxpayer money for public school, police, fire services or border walls, as it is for liberals to covet money for healthcare.

Christianity, Taxation

Who is the Troll?

There’s a ballot measure for a substantial property tax increase for the fire department locally. Sickeningly, people in my church are for it. The girl in this conversation goes to my church, and before I asked the first question, a guy from my church, who is a real pantywaist, had responded that he will bring her a sign. He showed again what a real pantywaist he is by deleting his comment. Here’s the conversation.

This girl is a perky, bubbly person who is currently running an insurance agency, and is marketing herself as someone with whom you’d want to come in and chit chat about insurance. I’m surprised she betrayed all the marketing efforts in this conversation with personal attacks.

A troll from stories I read as a kid is a creature that lives under a bridge and forces people to pay a toll. Does that sound at all applicable to this situation? Call me whatever names you want, but she is the real troll, in favor of forcing others to pay just for living in this fire district. Once a year the system of trolls send the bill, and we’re forced to pay.

She’s personally mounting an attack on my financial well-being. Any other business in favor of forcing people to pay for its services would be immoral, but I’m the troll for speaking out against the covetousness in my congregation. I’m the troll for not wanting to be forced to pay for services I’ve never used, and being in favor of a funding model that doesn’t involve threats and violence.

But yesterday, my pastor spoke on the minutiae of Exodus 35 for 50 minutes, while ignoring the gross immorality of a good portion of the people in his church.  Christians are the enemy of righteous government and liberty. That is why we are losing the culture.

Reject Socialism, Resistance to Tyranny is Obedience to God, Taxation

A Simple Question

I used to listen to this guy a lot and I need to refresh myself on his arguments. He’s dead on on everything he says about our government. I don’t know if he would end up agreeing with the biblical plan for after our government is gone, but he’s awesome.

There’s a proposal for increasing property taxes for the fire department on the ballot, and a girl that goes to my church asked for a yard sign on the campaign’s facebook page. A guy who goes to my church and is a firefighter told her that he’d bring her a sign. I asked the question: So you guys are in favor of forcing me to pay this whether I want to or not, under the threat of confiscation of my home?

The guy deleted his comment. Whoever runs the facebook page is so ignorant that they said I must have the wrong ballot measure, because they’re not in favor of taking anyone’s home. The girl called me a troll. I said she takes the cake for being a troll, because she actually is in favor of forcing me to pay for her pet cause.  Of course, no one actually answers the question or carries on a conversation.

Here’s the video with the simple question.

Abolish The Police, Christianity, Practical Ideas, Reject Socialism, Taxation, Theonomy

What Am I Willing To Do To Make Government Irrelevant?

Why is government so involved in nearly every aspect of our lives? Because Christians have been disobedient. We weren’t supporting our parents and grandparents, so the government gave us Social Security. We weren’t taking care of education properly, so government gave us public school and so on.  Once the government started doing those jobs, we really gave up doing those jobs.

What is the solution? How do we shrink the size of government? We have to start doing those jobs again, and do them better than the government is doing them. Someone on Facebook said that sounds nice, but what are you willing to do? Here is what I told them:

1. I’m willing to homeschool my children in spite of being forced to pay property taxes that are used to educate other people’s children.
2. Lord willing, I’ll be able to rip up my Social Security checks in spite of being forced to pay into it.
3. I’m willing to come when my neighbors call to help to protect them from intruders, so that we don’t have to call the cops.
4. I’m willing to never call the cops/government on Christians because I’d rather be wronged than go to unbelievers to solve disputes as Scripture commands.
5. I’m willing to help my in-laws in their old age so that they might tear up their Social Security checks, as Scripture commands.
6. I’m willing to help orphans, widows and foreigners as Scripture commands.
7. I’m willing to listen to ideas for other ways we can make our antichrist government irrelevant and demonstrate the inferiority of secular humanism to Christianity.

 

 

Capitalism, Christianity, Taxation

Taxation In Scripture

Here’s an interesting discussion of what Scripture teaches about taxation.

Bojidar Marinov says,

“What’s the biblical principle behind ‘no taxation without representation’?”

It’s a very good question. It’s yuge. It’s an enormous question. I am not kiddin’.

So I did a quick study on the issue. Just quick (queek, as they say it in the South), not comprehensive, just to see what the Bible says and doesn’t say, without making any systematic ideology out of it. And here’s what I think I discovered:

There is no such Biblical principle. The only Biblical principle as to who gets taxed and who doesn’t is found in Matt. 17:25. It specifically says that the sons of the rulers (the homeborn, the citizens) are not taxed, while only the strangers are taxed. The words used for “taxes” there are “telos” and “kensos” (that is, “census”) and both signify taxes that are TAKEN from the population, the first as a rent for living on government land, the second as “tribute” of conquered people to their conquerors. (To compare, the taxes in Rom. 13 are “phoros,” that is, a “bringing,” something that can be understood to be a voluntary offering, not our modern compulsory taxation.) Thus, taxes in our modern sense – as a compulsory payment – only apply to strangers. The “sons” (homeborn and citizens) should pay no taxes.

This corresponds to other references in the NT and from history. Rome taxed the conquered peoples but not its own citizens. (Wealthy Romans were expected to contribute voluntarily.) That’s why the commander in Acts 22:28 paid a large sum for his citizenship: it freed him of taxes, in addition to allowing him to serve in the military and be armed at all times. The tax code changed much later, and then all citizens were made subject to taxation, and with it, all the conquered people were granted Roman citizenship.

The US had such system until 1913. It was foreigners who were taxed for the privilege to immigrate. The federal budget was sometimes almost entirely financed by this immigration poll-tax, to the point that the US entered WWI with a gigantic budget surplus, all financed by immigrants.

Such a system, however, is entirely opposite to what we have today, both as policies and as ideology. In the first place, if rulers are only supported by taxes from immigrants, they need to make sure that the nation is an attractive place for foreigners. (Rome did it by conquering nations but that can’t continue for long, not in our time, at least.) This means righteousness and justice. It also means open borders for both people and merchandise; for a ruler who closes his borders will either be left without revenue, or will have to tax his own citizens which will mean effectively turning his own citizens into foreigners. (As is the US today.) It also means a government that depends heavily on its own citizens to understand the concept of hospitality, thus, expanding the rule of righteousness across the land. In the final account, a nation that only taxes foreigners will have a government that is forced by the very nature of its taxation sources to stay limited and just, and encourage voluntarism, hospitality, and general righteousness in its population.

So, the answer to the question is:

There is no Biblical principle to support “no taxation without representation.” The Biblical principle is: “No compulsory taxation for citizens.”

Christianity, End Public School, Taxation

Confused Pastors

I know a guy who is a pastor in town, and has been a Christian for decades. I’m not all that young anymore, but this guy has had formal Bible education and has a lot more experience in life and in studying Scripture than I have. You would think this is someone that I could look up to and find answers from–not someone I would have to be offering correction to. Furthermore, I think that today, and hopefully for the rest of my life, that if someone offers me a logical correction that includes a lot of Bible verses that I will be open to hearing them, no matter how much younger they are.

And it’s not like his generation (or him personally) has it all together and they’ve been so successful in accomplishing so much for Christ. They (and their predecessors for generations now) have stood by and watched our culture rot. They have been miserable failures. They have zero cause for cockiness or thinking they have it all figured out.

Larry Weaver, the pastor of the First Baptist Church, has come out in favor of this property tax increase for the school district. I pointed out to him that public school is antichrist because of what Jesus said in Matthew 12:30. My comment disappeared.

I wrote him a message saying it looks like my comment was deleted and that was fine, but I’d like to discuss this issue because there are serious biblical issues with this. He wrote me back and said that he didn’t delete the comment, his friend hid the comment. I don’t really know what the difference is, but there’s that clarification. Neither has the comment reappeared, so I don’t think there’s any difference. He said he’s not interested in discussing it with me online or in-person.

In his message, he said that there are enough Christian teachers doing good work that he doesn’t consider the school system to be antichrist. Well, that’s nice, but I don’t remember having any openly Christian teachers in my time in public school. Maybe the whole thing has been completely Christianized since then (ha, ha, ha). Also, public school is funded by socialism and theft–things frowned on in Scripture. If Christian teachers are taking advantage of a socialist system to advance Christianity, they’re attempting to advance Christianity by the sword, by government power. If they’re not attempting to advance Christianity, they’re advancing humanism.

I also pointed out the injustice of property tax and I said that anyone who votes for this is guilty of covetousness, which is covered by the Tenth Commandment. If someone personally objects for whatever reason, the people voting for this are in favor of using government force to make them pay. They aren’t standing up for the weakest among us, but for the principle that might makes right. It’s disgusting to me.

And the vast majority of Christians think that we can vote however we want  on issues like this. They think that Scripture must not dictate and we shouldn’t get into politics. But the truth is that every area of life is moral and religious and a spiritual man is able to discern the truth, and judge rightly by God’s standard (1 Corinthians 2:15-16). Pastors and the previous generation have failed us miserably, and there are very few who can judge properly.