- December 5th, 2024, 3:10 pm
#470437
Some people somehow actually think taxation is not theft. That is mind-boggling to me, and it seems more like their disagreement in that case isn't with me but rather with the dictionary. 
If you think taxation is not theft, please post a reply in my topic about that, making sure to answer each of the 14 questions:
14 questions for people who somehow believe taxation is not theft
However, a common and reasonable belief, which is shared even by many NAP-following libertarians, is that, while taxation is obviously theft and violent robbery, they believe some small amount of legal violent robbery is desirable or "necessary" for some important desirable purpose, such as to fund some kind of mafia-style protection racket.
In other words, almost everyone agrees that over 90% of big government spending (and thus over 90% of taxes) would be be better off eliminated.
For instance, almost everyone agrees that these huge expenses paid for via taxation (i.e. violent robbery) would be better off eliminated:
- War on Drugs
- Mass incarceration of non-violent people for victimless crimes
- Most of policing (94% of arrests in the USA are for non-violent offenses such as marijuana possession)
- Prison-industrial complex
- Military-industrial complex
- Corporate welfare
- The other trillions of dollars per year legally laundered into the hands of the rich but purposely deceivingly mislabeled in the budget under the false dishonest name of things like "foreign aid" or the "war on poverty" or "the environment"
The services you would happily use anyway wouldn't be significantly affected by being turned from a robbery-funded tax system to an opt-in/opt-out fee system. If you could decline your subscription to the fire department and get a corresponding refund/discount on the portion of your taxes that goes to that, you'd probably still choose to subscribe. The only difference then would be that the transaction is truly consensual and thus would be called a fee or price rather than a tax. In the USA, we have a government-run postal service called the USPS that is not funded via taxation, but rather fee opt-in fees. That isn't theft, nor is it unfair that someone who refuses to pay postage fees won't be able to mail packages via the USPS.
But because the difference is so moot in those cases, those aren't typically worth discussing let alone debating. They typically only get debated in strawman or red herring arguments. Even the most extreme libertarians and anarchists really don't care if they are technically being violently coerced into buying services from the local fire department, since they would happily buy it anyway. (That is, on both counts, assuming there is not significant so-called overbilling and so-called corruption going in the local fire department that thus cause it to be way overpriced.)
Rather, when talking about taxation, it doesn't make sense to discuss the tiny fraction that goes to services most people would buy (e.g. fire department, license to drive on paved roads and bridges, etc.).
To understand these fractions, consider the taxes a typical American citizen is forced to pay, as measured by government spending, and using my hometown (where I was born without consent) as an example:
$43,000 per taxpayer spent by the USA Federal Government ($6.8 trillion total)
$11,000 per taxpayer spent by the Connecticut State Government
$3,400 per person spent per person by the Manchester Municipal Corporation, i.e. the town, which funds the the things like the schools, police department, roads, and fire departments.
That means a typical taxpayer pays a total of about $57,400 per year in taxes, on average, at threat of violent imprisonment if they refuse, but only $3,400 (about 6%) goes to important valued local services like fire departments and roads. The rest is sent far away to millionaires in Washington who then legally launder it through false dishonest inflated budgets to make the rich richer and rig election campaigns using the stolen money as indirect campaign financing to ensure the country does become a real democracy which would surely disrupt their massive and hugely profitable mafia-style violent robbery racket.
The USA federal government (which is in principle is a federation of independent states similar to the EU or UN) spends over $26,000 per taxpaer. If these taxes aren't paid, one goes to prison, and one cannot avoid them even by moving to the woods or overseas. The USA Federal government charges these taxes on USA citizens even if you do not live in the USA.
The Connecticut state government spends over $5,000 per person. If these aren't paid, one goes to prison.
And the Manchester Municipal Corporation (i.e. town) at all but collects $3,400 per person on average via what are essentially condo fees or rental fees on real estate/property that is built on or kept on the small land of the town. Even though, philosophically these are borderline not actual taxes, since they are more like a consensual rental fee or consensual HOA fee, most people call them "taxes".
Just look at how in just one short week the Biden-Harris administration announced they are allegedly giving billions to Israel and Ukraine for "military aid" and billions to Africa for "natural disaster relief", right after only giving a measly $750 of stolen taxpayer money back to families in North Carolina to (allegedly) help them recover their natural disaster.
If you are a hurricane victim in NC yourself, imagine having your government violently rob you for over $40,000 a year in taxes, and then you get hit by hurricane, and so they send you a measly $750 of your own money back while sending the rest overseas into a blatant money laundering scheme that makes the rich richer and funds corruptions overseas causing many people in other countries to understandably hate American and hate you because of the way your government spends your money to hurt them against your will and theirs.
My heart breaks for all taxpayers who are, on average in the USA, are violently victimized by their own government to the tune of $40,000 per year. But today my heart especially breaks for the victims in North Carolina who are being reminded the hard way that the government doesn't exist to help you. It exists to help the already rich and powerful at your expense. That is not only your expense in the financial sense of the money they violently rob from you but also in these of the violence the government does to you and to dishonest rig the economy and system against you.
Many people in the USA are taxed into poverty, meaning their gross income is significantly above the poverty line but their net income after taxes is significantly below the poverty line. Many Americans don't realize how much they pay in taxes because half their payroll taxes are hidden on their paycheck. Only self-employed Americans tend to realize just how the income taxes are for even the working poor. Most Americans don't how much incredibly much more they would get paid each week if they weren't being charged income and payroll taxes.
And the sad thing is Americans have it better than most in all these respects. We may still be infected with a lot of the British system that we revolted against, and it may have gotten a lot worse since us since the income tax was introduced in 1913, but in terms of big government the monarchy has had it and still has it even worse and has had it even worse ever since we threw our tea parties and stamp act riots and declared independence.
Sadly, America is one of the freest countries on Earth. Sadly, the state of affairs I've described to you above about America is better in terms of freedom and liberty and the Non-Aggression Principle than most of the world.
Of course, those lines get blurred when you remember the same ultra-rich deep state that owns the Republicans, Democrats, and American government also owns most of the rest of the governments and mainstream media outlets in the world. So, in reality, we already essentially have an unelected non-democratic worldwide government that is oligarchic and plutocratic and hugely profits the tiny elite class by violently oppressing and violently robbing the productive masses an almost unfathomably large scale.
With all that said, I want to end by saying this: There is a reason I am posting this in the discussion forum exclusive for readers of my book, "In It Together", which isn't a book about politics but rather a book that gives an infinitely easy recipe that anyone can implement at zero cost to be guaranteed to rapidly achieve invincible unwavering free-spirited inner peace (a.k.a. consistent true happiness and unwavering spiritual fulfillment, day in day out, independent of external circumstance).
Don't despair, my friends. There are no shoulds or oughts in anything I wrote above. There is no 'tries' or 'tryings'. There is no 'fails' of 'failures'. Indeed, it reeks of success. Even when I talk about the government and the violent robbery and such, I talk about in terms of success. I don't say the governments (i.e. the powers that be) fail to help us peasants; I say they succeed at doing exactly what they've been designed to do since the very first king issued the very tax. It's so simple and obvious to see not just simple acceptable political truths but all truths when your eyesight isn't clouded by the miserable illusions of should, ought, try, fail, must, need, and so on and so forth. When your version isn't clouded by those illusions like the illusion of should and ought, you see so clearly what actually is, was, and will be, and you accept it fully and act on it accordingly.
I dare you, for your sake and mine, to carefully and slowly re-read through this post and my book and see if you can find a contradiction between anything I've written here and my book, or anywhere. If you find it, call me out, please. Say, "Eckhart, you wrote, and I quote verbatim, 'XYZ', in this post, but then in your book you wrote, and I quote verbatim, 'ABC'; Isn't that a contradiction?" Oh, I love getting questions like that, especially from careful readers and appreciative fans and friends.
I don't get mad or offended when someone finds a typo in my book (or social media posts or SMS text messages or emails). I get grateful. I say thank you for pointing that out to me so I can fix it and learn to avoid making the same typo in the future. The same goes for when someone points out a contradiction, or unclear or precise wording that creates the illusion of a contradiction. I treat that like a typo, except usually I'm even more grateful to get that brought to my attentions and addressed.
Friends, if you touch the fire, and it burns you, learn and accept; don't resent. Don't hold onto the tiniest bit of unforgiveness (a.k.a. resentment) or hate. If you feel there is anything to forgive, then forgive unconditionally, but, of course, when you practice this principle fully, then there is never anything to forgive in the first place because you never any unforgiveness at all to let go of.
I will have this invincible nirvanna-like grace, spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline), and invincible inner peace (a.k.a. true happiness) every day for the rest of my life. Even if it ends with a vicious lion literally brutally eating me to death, I will unconditionally love that lion and unconditionally love and accept that lion, event, and overall aspect of unchangeable reality. I will die with a smile on my soul if not my literal human mouth.
Let go of all miserable dishonest self-torturing illusions, and see clearly. See and learn the simple basic nature of fire, lions, humans, and governments. Act accordingly, and love them and everything all the while, without the tiniest bit of unforviveness, wilful resentment, or hate in your heart.
To have hate in your heart is to be in hell. To let go of all hate and unforgiveness in all its form is to be a heaven from which nobody and nothing can take you.
They can burn and eat my body, or its other material possessions, which are at most mere extensions of my body, which itself mere temporary ever-changing clothing, that can be burned or eaten and will no matter what one day be destroyed. All so-called material possessions will be lost and destroyed soon, it's just a matter of when, of how soon. Politically, property is a complex debatable philosophical topic. Spiritually, it is not. Spiritually, material possession is an illusion, including even the alleged possession of your literal human clothes, literal human skin, and literal human body. Spiritually, they are all borrowed ephemeral phantoms, doomed to be very soon washed away by the waves like childish sand castles in the wet beach sand.
Let go of all hate, and lovingly see the fire, lion, humans, and governments exactly as they really are.
Many can't see, or, perhaps with a form of a willing desire to not see, won't see and won't accept the kind of simple petty political truths in the post, and simple truths about other things elsewhere. They choose complicated clouded denial because they think, perhaps correctly, that if they believed these simple obvious truths they would be filled with awful miserable hate.
Unconditional love is what lets me see these truths.
Is it cynicism? Is it realisticness? Maybe it's both. But, whatever it is, it's also love, unconditional love. It's also invincible true happiness (a.k.a. invincible free-spirited inner peace).
Those who would project shoulds and oughts into what I've written, reading between the lines, or reading it with some kind of hateful judgemental tone would not want to see and believe to be true what's I've actually said, which is much simplier and lacks all the extra nonsense they project from within themselves onto it. And it makes sense; their choice makes sense. If they saw it and believed it for what it actually is, they (unlike me and those who my book's teachings) would be filled with miserable overwhelming hate. It's probably wiser and better for them to, for now at least, see their miserable hellish complicated illusions than see the simple lovable truth but hate it viciously.
The use my simple judgement-free descriptions of simple truths as a blank canvass on which to project their own reflection. They use the blank space between the lines they read between to project their own reflection. And they see their own hateful, judgemental reflection, and they get rightfully scared as hell. And I don't blame them. It makes sense. If I was them, I'd do the same thing. I'd keep lying to myself if I was them. Because they are so prone to hating things, even the truth, they are correctly estimating that they are better off believing in their miserable hated illusions than seeing and believing the simple truth that they would hate even more.
Hateful poeple will tend to project hate onto me or my words, or see as me making moral prescriptions when I am merely amorally describing how things actually are with amoral descriptions, without any shoulds or oughts or tries or fails. What they are possibly (or arguably almost certainly) thinking at some level is, "If I believed reality is the way you are saying it is, exactly as you've explicitly written without any reading between the lines or perceived tone or such, I would then viciously hate reality for being the way it is even more than I already, and I can't or don't want to handle that emotionally right now."
To that kind of person, if they wanted my advice, my advice would be this: I understand. Refusing to believe what I have claimed to be true about governments and politics and such would not be good for you right now. In fact, I strongly recommend you don't read anything I've written about politics or current events, just so you don't get filled with even more hate, unforgiveness, or resentment than you already have. Instead, I recommend you read my non-political book, In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All
With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
trillions.jpg (282.15 KiB) Viewed 450 times
If you think taxation is not theft, please post a reply in my topic about that, making sure to answer each of the 14 questions:
14 questions for people who somehow believe taxation is not theft
However, a common and reasonable belief, which is shared even by many NAP-following libertarians, is that, while taxation is obviously theft and violent robbery, they believe some small amount of legal violent robbery is desirable or "necessary" for some important desirable purpose, such as to fund some kind of mafia-style protection racket.
In other words, almost everyone agrees that over 90% of big government spending (and thus over 90% of taxes) would be be better off eliminated.
For instance, almost everyone agrees that these huge expenses paid for via taxation (i.e. violent robbery) would be better off eliminated:
- War on Drugs
- Mass incarceration of non-violent people for victimless crimes
- Most of policing (94% of arrests in the USA are for non-violent offenses such as marijuana possession)
- Prison-industrial complex
- Military-industrial complex
- Corporate welfare
- The other trillions of dollars per year legally laundered into the hands of the rich but purposely deceivingly mislabeled in the budget under the false dishonest name of things like "foreign aid" or the "war on poverty" or "the environment"
The services you would happily use anyway wouldn't be significantly affected by being turned from a robbery-funded tax system to an opt-in/opt-out fee system. If you could decline your subscription to the fire department and get a corresponding refund/discount on the portion of your taxes that goes to that, you'd probably still choose to subscribe. The only difference then would be that the transaction is truly consensual and thus would be called a fee or price rather than a tax. In the USA, we have a government-run postal service called the USPS that is not funded via taxation, but rather fee opt-in fees. That isn't theft, nor is it unfair that someone who refuses to pay postage fees won't be able to mail packages via the USPS.
But because the difference is so moot in those cases, those aren't typically worth discussing let alone debating. They typically only get debated in strawman or red herring arguments. Even the most extreme libertarians and anarchists really don't care if they are technically being violently coerced into buying services from the local fire department, since they would happily buy it anyway. (That is, on both counts, assuming there is not significant so-called overbilling and so-called corruption going in the local fire department that thus cause it to be way overpriced.)
Rather, when talking about taxation, it doesn't make sense to discuss the tiny fraction that goes to services most people would buy (e.g. fire department, license to drive on paved roads and bridges, etc.).
To understand these fractions, consider the taxes a typical American citizen is forced to pay, as measured by government spending, and using my hometown (where I was born without consent) as an example:
$43,000 per taxpayer spent by the USA Federal Government ($6.8 trillion total)
$11,000 per taxpayer spent by the Connecticut State Government
$3,400 per person spent per person by the Manchester Municipal Corporation, i.e. the town, which funds the the things like the schools, police department, roads, and fire departments.
That means a typical taxpayer pays a total of about $57,400 per year in taxes, on average, at threat of violent imprisonment if they refuse, but only $3,400 (about 6%) goes to important valued local services like fire departments and roads. The rest is sent far away to millionaires in Washington who then legally launder it through false dishonest inflated budgets to make the rich richer and rig election campaigns using the stolen money as indirect campaign financing to ensure the country does become a real democracy which would surely disrupt their massive and hugely profitable mafia-style violent robbery racket.
The USA federal government (which is in principle is a federation of independent states similar to the EU or UN) spends over $26,000 per taxpaer. If these taxes aren't paid, one goes to prison, and one cannot avoid them even by moving to the woods or overseas. The USA Federal government charges these taxes on USA citizens even if you do not live in the USA.
The Connecticut state government spends over $5,000 per person. If these aren't paid, one goes to prison.
And the Manchester Municipal Corporation (i.e. town) at all but collects $3,400 per person on average via what are essentially condo fees or rental fees on real estate/property that is built on or kept on the small land of the town. Even though, philosophically these are borderline not actual taxes, since they are more like a consensual rental fee or consensual HOA fee, most people call them "taxes".
Just look at how in just one short week the Biden-Harris administration announced they are allegedly giving billions to Israel and Ukraine for "military aid" and billions to Africa for "natural disaster relief", right after only giving a measly $750 of stolen taxpayer money back to families in North Carolina to (allegedly) help them recover their natural disaster.
If you are a hurricane victim in NC yourself, imagine having your government violently rob you for over $40,000 a year in taxes, and then you get hit by hurricane, and so they send you a measly $750 of your own money back while sending the rest overseas into a blatant money laundering scheme that makes the rich richer and funds corruptions overseas causing many people in other countries to understandably hate American and hate you because of the way your government spends your money to hurt them against your will and theirs.
My heart breaks for all taxpayers who are, on average in the USA, are violently victimized by their own government to the tune of $40,000 per year. But today my heart especially breaks for the victims in North Carolina who are being reminded the hard way that the government doesn't exist to help you. It exists to help the already rich and powerful at your expense. That is not only your expense in the financial sense of the money they violently rob from you but also in these of the violence the government does to you and to dishonest rig the economy and system against you.
Many people in the USA are taxed into poverty, meaning their gross income is significantly above the poverty line but their net income after taxes is significantly below the poverty line. Many Americans don't realize how much they pay in taxes because half their payroll taxes are hidden on their paycheck. Only self-employed Americans tend to realize just how the income taxes are for even the working poor. Most Americans don't how much incredibly much more they would get paid each week if they weren't being charged income and payroll taxes.
And the sad thing is Americans have it better than most in all these respects. We may still be infected with a lot of the British system that we revolted against, and it may have gotten a lot worse since us since the income tax was introduced in 1913, but in terms of big government the monarchy has had it and still has it even worse and has had it even worse ever since we threw our tea parties and stamp act riots and declared independence.
Sadly, America is one of the freest countries on Earth. Sadly, the state of affairs I've described to you above about America is better in terms of freedom and liberty and the Non-Aggression Principle than most of the world.
Of course, those lines get blurred when you remember the same ultra-rich deep state that owns the Republicans, Democrats, and American government also owns most of the rest of the governments and mainstream media outlets in the world. So, in reality, we already essentially have an unelected non-democratic worldwide government that is oligarchic and plutocratic and hugely profits the tiny elite class by violently oppressing and violently robbing the productive masses an almost unfathomably large scale.
With all that said, I want to end by saying this: There is a reason I am posting this in the discussion forum exclusive for readers of my book, "In It Together", which isn't a book about politics but rather a book that gives an infinitely easy recipe that anyone can implement at zero cost to be guaranteed to rapidly achieve invincible unwavering free-spirited inner peace (a.k.a. consistent true happiness and unwavering spiritual fulfillment, day in day out, independent of external circumstance).
Don't despair, my friends. There are no shoulds or oughts in anything I wrote above. There is no 'tries' or 'tryings'. There is no 'fails' of 'failures'. Indeed, it reeks of success. Even when I talk about the government and the violent robbery and such, I talk about in terms of success. I don't say the governments (i.e. the powers that be) fail to help us peasants; I say they succeed at doing exactly what they've been designed to do since the very first king issued the very tax. It's so simple and obvious to see not just simple acceptable political truths but all truths when your eyesight isn't clouded by the miserable illusions of should, ought, try, fail, must, need, and so on and so forth. When your version isn't clouded by those illusions like the illusion of should and ought, you see so clearly what actually is, was, and will be, and you accept it fully and act on it accordingly.
I dare you, for your sake and mine, to carefully and slowly re-read through this post and my book and see if you can find a contradiction between anything I've written here and my book, or anywhere. If you find it, call me out, please. Say, "Eckhart, you wrote, and I quote verbatim, 'XYZ', in this post, but then in your book you wrote, and I quote verbatim, 'ABC'; Isn't that a contradiction?" Oh, I love getting questions like that, especially from careful readers and appreciative fans and friends.
I don't get mad or offended when someone finds a typo in my book (or social media posts or SMS text messages or emails). I get grateful. I say thank you for pointing that out to me so I can fix it and learn to avoid making the same typo in the future. The same goes for when someone points out a contradiction, or unclear or precise wording that creates the illusion of a contradiction. I treat that like a typo, except usually I'm even more grateful to get that brought to my attentions and addressed.
Friends, if you touch the fire, and it burns you, learn and accept; don't resent. Don't hold onto the tiniest bit of unforgiveness (a.k.a. resentment) or hate. If you feel there is anything to forgive, then forgive unconditionally, but, of course, when you practice this principle fully, then there is never anything to forgive in the first place because you never any unforgiveness at all to let go of.
I will have this invincible nirvanna-like grace, spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline), and invincible inner peace (a.k.a. true happiness) every day for the rest of my life. Even if it ends with a vicious lion literally brutally eating me to death, I will unconditionally love that lion and unconditionally love and accept that lion, event, and overall aspect of unchangeable reality. I will die with a smile on my soul if not my literal human mouth.
Let go of all miserable dishonest self-torturing illusions, and see clearly. See and learn the simple basic nature of fire, lions, humans, and governments. Act accordingly, and love them and everything all the while, without the tiniest bit of unforviveness, wilful resentment, or hate in your heart.
To have hate in your heart is to be in hell. To let go of all hate and unforgiveness in all its form is to be a heaven from which nobody and nothing can take you.
They can burn and eat my body, or its other material possessions, which are at most mere extensions of my body, which itself mere temporary ever-changing clothing, that can be burned or eaten and will no matter what one day be destroyed. All so-called material possessions will be lost and destroyed soon, it's just a matter of when, of how soon. Politically, property is a complex debatable philosophical topic. Spiritually, it is not. Spiritually, material possession is an illusion, including even the alleged possession of your literal human clothes, literal human skin, and literal human body. Spiritually, they are all borrowed ephemeral phantoms, doomed to be very soon washed away by the waves like childish sand castles in the wet beach sand.
Let go of all hate, and lovingly see the fire, lion, humans, and governments exactly as they really are.
Many can't see, or, perhaps with a form of a willing desire to not see, won't see and won't accept the kind of simple petty political truths in the post, and simple truths about other things elsewhere. They choose complicated clouded denial because they think, perhaps correctly, that if they believed these simple obvious truths they would be filled with awful miserable hate.
Unconditional love is what lets me see these truths.
Is it cynicism? Is it realisticness? Maybe it's both. But, whatever it is, it's also love, unconditional love. It's also invincible true happiness (a.k.a. invincible free-spirited inner peace).
Those who would project shoulds and oughts into what I've written, reading between the lines, or reading it with some kind of hateful judgemental tone would not want to see and believe to be true what's I've actually said, which is much simplier and lacks all the extra nonsense they project from within themselves onto it. And it makes sense; their choice makes sense. If they saw it and believed it for what it actually is, they (unlike me and those who my book's teachings) would be filled with miserable overwhelming hate. It's probably wiser and better for them to, for now at least, see their miserable hellish complicated illusions than see the simple lovable truth but hate it viciously.
The use my simple judgement-free descriptions of simple truths as a blank canvass on which to project their own reflection. They use the blank space between the lines they read between to project their own reflection. And they see their own hateful, judgemental reflection, and they get rightfully scared as hell. And I don't blame them. It makes sense. If I was them, I'd do the same thing. I'd keep lying to myself if I was them. Because they are so prone to hating things, even the truth, they are correctly estimating that they are better off believing in their miserable hated illusions than seeing and believing the simple truth that they would hate even more.
Hateful poeple will tend to project hate onto me or my words, or see as me making moral prescriptions when I am merely amorally describing how things actually are with amoral descriptions, without any shoulds or oughts or tries or fails. What they are possibly (or arguably almost certainly) thinking at some level is, "If I believed reality is the way you are saying it is, exactly as you've explicitly written without any reading between the lines or perceived tone or such, I would then viciously hate reality for being the way it is even more than I already, and I can't or don't want to handle that emotionally right now."
To that kind of person, if they wanted my advice, my advice would be this: I understand. Refusing to believe what I have claimed to be true about governments and politics and such would not be good for you right now. In fact, I strongly recommend you don't read anything I've written about politics or current events, just so you don't get filled with even more hate, unforgiveness, or resentment than you already have. Instead, I recommend you read my non-political book, In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All
With love,
Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
My entire political philosophy summed up in one tweet.
"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."
I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."
I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
Favorite Philosopher: Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
Signature Addition: View official OnlineBookClub.org review of In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All
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