Category Archives: Taxation
Property Tax is Theft
So there are at least two tax hikes on the ballot for Canon City. One is a property tax increase for the school district…for the children. I’ve posed this objection several times, and no one has answered yet, because there is no rational answer. Here’s the objection, and the response of someone who is normally reasonable, logical and successful in life.
His response is that voting gives the government the ability to steal. I don’t know whether voting turns stealing into not stealing, or just means that government can steal. But what a silly answer. Clearly this is a religious view for him. He thinks there is some sort of magic that takes place at an election that causes property tax to be acceptable.
Pastors need to be talking about this from the pulpit. There is stupidity in America, because pastors are not doing their job. They’re not preaching against covetousness and theft, or explaining that the government is accountable to the law of God.
The second tax hike is a lodging tax, and someone went around and put up an obscene number of bandit signs around town. The slogan on the signs says, “The tax someone else pays.” I hope there is a pastor in this town that points out the obvious violation of the golden rule being promoted on those signs to every man, woman and child in this town, but I’m not holding my breath.
He’s A Raging Socialist and Doesn’t Realize It
Here’s this short and sweet conversation from Facebook on a conservative group. This guy is a socialist, and he doesn’t even realize it.
He clearly doesn’t get it. He thinks that taxes are his generous donation, and I’m the stupid one. This is not a rare conversation on that group. This one is more succinct than most, but there are people who consider themselves to be good conservatives who are actually raging socialists. They are the problem with this country.
Social security seems to be a hot button for many of the people receiving its benefits. I don’t know how old this guy is, but that was his main issue. I think that receiving or depending on that government check in the mail will make you blind to certain facts. It is important that we don’t accept the bait of government “gifts” as much as possible, because there seems to be a hook hidden in them.
Wicked Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders is a bigot who votes against people on the basis of their religious beliefs.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=LQowhuEcGSk
He did to the guy exactly what he’s accusing the guy of. That is the kind of absurdity and hypocrisy that rejecting Christ leads to. Bernie’s brand of socialism is wicked because it is based on government theft, and appeals to the covetousness of the people.
I try not to spend too much time on federal politics, but I will take a moment to expose stupidity at any level.
Cops are the Biggest Thieves
Civil asset forfeiture is blatant theft performed by cops. The cops are bigger thieves than the thieves. Of course, government in general way outpaces the cops by themselves via unjust taxation and currency manipulation.
Here is a graph from yesterday’s post that bears reposting again and again.
The Soviet Union Won the Cold War
The Daily Record has an article saying that Canon City elementary and middle schools will be offering free breakfast to every student. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no such thing as a free breakfast.
This is a another way for our benevolent government to reinforce the lesson that socialism is the answer, and that big government will provide for you. Public schools have been a magnificent success for Marxists in indoctrinating the vast majority of Americans into being good socialists. Republicans are socialists, and even the vast majority of Christians are socialists in spite of the Bible teaching small government and private charity.
I commented on the Daily Record’s facebook post of this article, and you can see the results. I rarely get replies to my comments on Daily Record posts, but in this case I got two, and another saying I should crawl back in my hole, which was deleted. All but one other comment was favorable to the “free” breakfast scheme, in a county that has voted Republican in every election since the dawn of time.
For the life of me, I can’t understand why food stamps are inadequate; welfare is inadequate; and the breakfast that schools already serve is inadequate. I guess we just need to keep government growing.
Clearly, the vast majority of Americans are socialists, taking part in many socialist schemes (Social Security, Medicare, police, roads, libraries, fire services), the most pervasive and evil of which is public school. The USSR handed us our hats in the cold war while giving us the illusion that we won.
Pastors need to speak up about these rubber-meets-the-road topics, but ask your pastor about educating people on what the Bible says about capitalism and free markets, and he’ll probably tell you
- It doesn’t say anything.
- We should focus on the gospel–not politics.
- We shouldn’t rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic.
- He is a socialist.
This country may be in the same predicament as the Titanic after striking the iceberg, but that would only be because pastors haven’t been doing their job.
Throw More Money At It
Canon City’s new mayor succeeded in raising the sales tax in the city for the first time since the 1970s, and has now come out in favor of a property tax hike for the school district.
The streets are in terrible shape according to the city. They’ve failed to properly maintain the roads over the years. The school district has put off maintenance on the junior high building and Washington elementary to the point that they’re considering tearing them down. Are these people we should be giving more money to? I think they sound like utter failures. Everyone associated with operating those organizations over the last few decades should be embarrassed to show their face in public and there should be mobs in the street calling for those governmental entities to be disbanded.
But Higher-Taxes Troutman (who is supposed to be a Republican, small-government type) wants to use the threat of government-sanctioned violence and theft to force people to pay for the education of other people’s children. The public school system is built on covetousness, greed, theft and laziness. It is morally repugnant to the Christian worldview. Yet, I am forced to pay for it.
Higher-Taxes Troutman thinks that higher taxes and more free stuff will attract younger, more affluent residents. Maybe it would. Or maybe what would attract businesses is lower taxes or no taxes. Why attempt the same higher tax strategy as every other town in the country? Maybe try freedom, capitalism, and elimination of wasteful government entities. Maybe the sole purpose of the CCPD could become keeping federal and state enforcers out of town. Security can be handled by free market solutions and neighbors loving others more than themselves.
I’m with Paul Dorr, who says in the video below, “I have a deep passionate abhorrence of government schools.”
Thou Shalt Not Covet a Community Center
A group of people are pursuing the idea of a community center in Canon City.
Good for them. Build a community center. Make a boatload of money off of it. Whatever you do, don’t try to fund it with stolen money.
People can build whatever they want. It’s good to build things that are well-run and serve other people. Profit is a measure of how well you have served others. Christians should be the best at turning a profit, because they should be the best at serving others.
However, I have a sneaking suspicion that those who are pursuing this idea would be wanting to raise taxes to pay for it. If that is the case, they will be stealing money from some who have no intention of using the facility to subsidize reasonable prices for those who will use it. Taxation is taking money from people by threats of force. Theft is taking money from people by threats of force.
There is no magical ceremony that can change theft into not theft. Getting 50% plus one to vote in favor of a tax increase isn’t the magical ceremony that makes taxation any less violent.
Covetousness leads to theft, and if these people covet a community center, they are in sin. Voting for any tax increase is to violate the Tenth Commandment.
Answers to Larken Rose’s Questions
Larken Rose is an anarchocapitalist who posed these questions to someone who is opposed to anarchism. I’d like to answer his questions from a Christian theonomist perspective.
I have learned a lot from anarchocapitalists, and Larken in particular makes a lot of good points. I’d agree wholeheartedly with much of what anarchists say, but I think they don’t have a philosophical foundation for their system (which only Christianity can provide), though I love to see them ripping our current system to shreds.
So here are his five questions. I’ll put his writing in italics and answer the question just below each question.
1) Is there any means by which any number of individuals can delegate to someone else the moral right to do something which none of the individuals have the moral right to do themselves?
No human can delegate any moral rights. However, absolute morality, which Larken appeals to even though he’s not a Christian, can only come from God’s law. Part of God’s law specifies that there is one purpose and only one purpose for government: to punish evildoers. So there is a group of people (which would be a tiny fraction of the size of our current government) who do have the right to preside over trials and aid the people in carrying out justice.
I’m still trying to figure out what anarchists believe about how to punish criminals, so I don’t want to misrepresent what they believe, but I think there are some anarchists who would agree with that preceding paragraph.
To pick on the non-Christian viewpoint a little, Larken says that moral rights can’t be delegated, but why not? It seems to me that apart from God’s definition of good and evil, whoever has the most guns gets to define morality however they want. He might say that we learn right from wrong by Kindergarten, and I’d say that is because we’re created in God’s image. So he’s resting his whole view on blind faith that we all seem to know right from wrong, when there can be no such thing as absolute morality apart from Christianity.
2) Do those who wield political power (presidents, legislators, etc.) have the moral right to do things which other people do not have the moral right to do? If so, from whom and how did they acquire such a right?
As previously stated, judges have the right to preside over a trial and sentence someone to the proper, just punishment. The kings in Israel were not to wield executive power or to establish an army, but were the supreme judge of the land.
3) Is there any process (e.g., constitutions, elections, legislation) by which human beings can transform an immoral act into a moral act (without changing the act itself)?
No. This is a good point. I tried to express this to people in my community who supported the sales tax hike for roads last November. It was often like talking to a brick wall.
4) When law-makers and law-enforcers use coercion and force in the name of law and government, do they bear the same responsibility for their actions that anyone else would who did the same thing on his own?
Absolutely. God is no respecter of persons.
5) When there is a conflict between an individual’s own moral conscience, and the commands of a political authority, is the individual morally obligated to do what he personally views as wrong in order to “obey the law”?
God’s law is the standard by which all other laws are to be judged. A law that contradicts God’s law doesn’t need to be obeyed. However, I’m sure Larken would agree that some battles aren’t worth fighting, or are too costly to fight. I think that even though the income tax laws amount to theft, I ought to pay them, because I have a responsibility to be with my family if I’m able. I pay the thief, because he has a gun to my head–not because I have a moral responsibility to pay.
Are These Violent People?
All taxes are collected by threats of violence and property confiscation. That means if you’re in favor of taxation, you’re in favor of government violence to collect money.
Canon City has a measure on the ballot to increase its sales tax by 1%. I had an online debate with a guy who is in favor of this tax increase, to repair roads. So, this guy doesn’t like the condition of the roads, and covets better roads to the point that he’s willing to see increased government theft for his own personal benefit.
I confronted him with these truths, that he personally is being sinfully covetous, and is willing to see increased threats of violence for his pet issue, and that this is immoral. He said that our conversation reminded him that governing people is like herding cats, and he sees why there must be an enforcement mechanism for taxation.
So, I assume the guy isn’t personally violent. I don’t know him, but I think it’s safe to assume. But, he sees the need for the government to be violent. He’s not personally violent, but has no problem hiring thugs in blue costumes to perform violence so he can benefit personally from better roads.
He would probably say it would be immoral for him personally go try and collect money to pay for roads. But something magical happens in his mind to make it moral for a cop to coerce payment.
I’ve been wondering whether this makes him a violent person himself. But I don’t think he would ever harm anyone personally. I think it just makes him a sissy. He’s not willing to go kick someone’s head in; he wants someone else to do that for him. He’s just a sissy.
