Who owns
you? Who owns your labor? What if you were a furniture maker who felled the
tree, trimmed it, sawed and cured the wood, then crafted artistic and
functional pieces from it…..and government demanded a portion of your income
after selling the furniture? Who owns you and your labor? Think about the
farmer who tills the land, buys and plants the seed, anxiously watches the
weather and harvests the crop. Why should government demand a portion of his
proceeds? Almighty God wants a mere 10% so why should government demand
more….or any? Personally speaking, I have found that God has provided me with
strength and guidance whereas government has produced anxiety and interference.
It resembles being forced to pay for the privilege of jamming a stick in your own
eye.
Perhaps you
are not woodworking craftsman. Maybe you work on an assembly line at an
automobile plant. The miners who collected the raw material and the companies
for whom they work paid taxes on their labor. The smelters, stampers, welders
and forgers plus their companies paid taxes. The parts makers and shippers were
required under the threat of government to pay taxes, and finally the parts
arrive at your plant for you and your colleagues to assemble into a finished
product for sale. You, your co-workers and your employer must all pay taxes
based on what YOU have earned. The salespeople and owners of the dealership who
receives the product of your effort must pay taxes too. To the uninformed
observer taxes would appear to be necessary fee one pays for the opportunity to
work. So….to some degree it makes sense that people who do not work but live
off the government, pay no income tax. Is this system fair and equitable?
Why should
you and I labor to fund a bloated unaccountable government apparatus? Is there
a moral or ethical code that entitles the government to our labor? Are our
creativity, energy and industriousness fair game for wastrels, sluggards and
scofflaws? By what divine right does government lay claim to our work, our
sweat and our pain? Forcing us to pay taxes on our earnings is theft. Using our
taxes to subsidize those who refuse to work is criminal. There are two words
that come to mind when I think of government benefiting from the labor of its
citizens: serfdom and slavery. It seems logical that an industrious citizen is
an asset for the nation, yet our governments choose to punish diligent people
by confiscating a significant portion of their labor by means of force. Who
owns you?
Although I
have some constitutional quibbles with the Fair Tax, given the high-wire
spending of our government at the present time, I believe that it would provide
a more reasonable form of taxation for us as we struggle to reduce the size of
government. Three immediate benefits of the Fair Tax are apparent: it taxes
consumption rather than labor, it allows the worker to collect his or her
ENTIRE gross paycheck (less voluntary contributions such as United Way or union
dues), and it provides a measure of flexibility for the taxpayer to decide when
to pay taxes….or at what level her or his taxes will be. Freedom is the
opportunity to make our own choices, and the Fair Tax offers some level of
freedom in that regard.
Ideally…. in
a free nation that honors the individual sovereignty of its citizens, the
government would be funded through duties, imposts, excises and fees as
anticipated by our Framers in the
Constitution of the United States. Sadly the Constitution has been
relegated to a sentimental relic that career politicians honor with meaningless
lip service. They do not understand our fundamental document, and they do not
respect its precepts. To slash spending into constitutional limits (i.e. not
funding non-enumerated activities) and to wean the leviathan from its
blood-sucking dependence all at one time is politically impossible in the
present environment. But…an early and convincing half-way measure such as the
Fair Tax would begin the process of downsizing government and returning to a
modicum of liberty for taxpaying citizens. Perhaps as citizens perceive how
much of their earnings had been previously commandeered by government and how
much they have to pay at the point of sale, they’ll become irate.
In Ohio Tax
Freedom Day is April 12th for this year 2012. As the Bush tax rates
expire and toxic elements of Obamacare take root, the tax burden will be larger
next year and beyond. The average Buckeye worker must work for the government
for 3.5 months before paying the mortgage or rent, acquiring food and clothing,
purchasing an automobile and gasoline and paying for basic utilities and
staples. Nearly 30% of the typical worker’s labor is controlled by government.
Can you say partial serf? Can you imagine the road to slavery where you become
a tool of the state? Who owns you? Are you getting what you pay for from
government or are you over-burdened, annoyed and disrespected? Who owns you?
The time for reclaiming your sovereignty and your dignity is now.
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