We should die for taxes

Why don't people stop whining and pay their taxes?  Aren't taxes the price we pay for civilization?

And yet many people we consider heroes have been willing to die, rather than pay taxes.

Jefferson wrote that "a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed" was enough to spark the American Revolution.

The irony pisses Jefferson off.

Many of the rebellions you read about in history were tax revolts.  Freedom was equivalent with not paying taxes.  In ancient Rome, free citizens were exempt from most taxes, while their conquered subjects paid them.  The early Islamic empires exempted fellow Muslims from taxes, while their subjects paid.

Jesus equated tax-exemption with freedom when he said that the children of kings are free.  Everyone else is subject to the king.  Or, rather, subjected by the king.  Alexander the Great conquered the world, and subjected its inhabitants.  Their subjugation meant that they would pay him taxes, or tribute.  He was willing to allow their leaders to live, as long as the coins rolled his way.  U.S. foreign policy follows this same path, we allow foreign governments to remain intact, as long as the green flows this-a-way.

Conquerers often had their images engraved on the money of the people.  Every day, no matter how hard they worked, every coin they earned had the image of another man, who claimed ownership to the fruits of their labors.  An enforced currency conquers better than bullets, which is why U.S. is willing to start wars to uphold the dollar as the world's reserve currency  

The title of our monopolized money gives evidence that your earnings are not yours, they belong to your king.  It is not your note, it is the Federal Reserve's note.  We bow to Caesar still.

E Pluribus YourMom
(edited by Double Birds)

Domestically, many of us support heavy taxes because we are on the receiving end.  This being a Democracy, a majority of the non-tax-paying citizenry wishes to subject the tax-paying minority to serfdom.  We wish to own the fruits of another's labor, as if we somehow deserved them.  

A tyranny of a majority is no better than a tyranny of one.

Lincoln, the first "modern" president (by which I mean military dictator), followed this same pattern.  In his first inaugural address (where he also promises not to end slavery) he lays it out:

"The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. "


In other words—If the money keeps flowing, we will not invade.  If not . . .

Paying taxes is the equivalent of paying tribute.  It is an admission that you are a conquered subject, and not a free person. 

If taxes were voluntary, if we at least had some check-boxes we could mark to say we want our money to go towards schools and roads, and not bombs and bank bailouts, one might be able to argue that we are free.  But as long as imprisonment and audits remain for conscientious objectors, tax-payers are in nowise free.

Further reading:
For Good and Evil by Charles Adams
The Real Lincoln by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
Can There Be A 'Just" Tax by Murray N. Rothbard