Article by Colonel Nogov on Apr. 28, 2015
The government is an extortion racket. This should be obvious. This is a concept anarchists understand well. This article is for people who have never thought about it. After all, we’ve been told all of our lives that taxes are necessary.
We’ve been told without taxes certain things, like roads, law enforcement, fire fighters, etc. would never exist or would exist very limitedly. This is A.) not true; and B.) even if it were true, that point is irrelevant.
I’m just going to go over point A above briefly. When you’ve studied economics and free markets specifically, you’ll discover that anything that should exist will exist in a free market. Products and services are less expensive and higher quality too. Government interference into markets, whether taking it over completely or just regulating it, disrupts the ability of free markets to work causing products and services to become more expensive and of lower quality.
Extortion is a sub category of theft. To extort is to intimidate someone into giving you their money/property. You don’t take it directly, you use violence and/or the threat of violence to make them hand it over. The only difference between extortion and robbery is extortion usually implies an ongoing situation, while a robbery is usually a one time event.
Taxes shares the same definition as extortion. A group of people, who call themselves “government”, intimidate people into giving them money. The threat of violence is always present. If you refuse to send the “government” tax money, they send armed agents to assault you. This assault is carried out in the form of arrest, a trial, and jail. (Offering a tax evader a trial is simply for show. The government is the one committing extortion and assault, yet the victim of the government’s extortion and assault is the one on trial. This is to confuse the peasants into thinking it’s legitimate, and also for further intimidation.)
Using the word taxes instead of extortion doesn’t change the event being described. Just like if you claimed I murdered someone and I said, “no, I didn’t murder them, I prematurely ended their life”. Obviously you can’t change reality just by using a different word or words.
Taxes is extortion. It is undeniable.
Organizations like the mafia run extortion rackets. Governments run extortion rackets. Is the first bad, but the second good? Is the government’s extortion racket good because they use the money to do good things? In all extortion rackets there are three participants; the victim (the one having their money/property taken), The person or people doing the intimidating and enforcing non-compliance, and the people who benefit (there may be people who benefit from the extortion who aren’t actually committing the extortion.).
Lots of people benefit from the government’s extortion racket. People who work for the government get paid from the extortion racket. Contractors and their employees doing work for the government get paid from the extortion. People collecting government benefit checks get paid from the extortion. It’s tempting to want to look at the good things being done with money taken by extortion and turn a blind eye to the act itself. But, extortion is extortion is extortion. It is always wrong no matter if it’s an individual doing it or a group of individuals calling themselves government doing it.
When direct slavery still existed in the U.S. lots of people benefited. The slave owners, anyone associated with the slave trade, people buying the merchandise produced by slaves benefited from the low prices. Slavery is wrong. Extortion is wrong. You cannot look only at the benefits and ignore the acts causing those benefits. There is such a thing as right and wrong. You must first look to the act itself to determine if it is right or wrong before evaluating any supposed benefits. Benefits be damned if the act producing those benefits is morally wrong.
What to do if you are benefiting from the governments extortion racket? There are three types of people benefiting from the government’s extortion racket. The active participants and beneficiaries who want the extortion racket to continue for their benefit. They know taxation is extortion yet want it to continue. The second group is also benefiting and encouraging it, but they have suppressed the very thought that taxation is extortion. Their minds do not see the act of extortion, but only the benefits derived. These people are brainwashed, oblivious. The third group of people are benefiting out of necessity. They may or may not know taxation is extortion, but they have no other choice.
The ones who actively want and encourage the extortion racket to continue with full knowledge that taxation is extortion are truly sick individuals. They are the scourge of civilization. They promote theft and violence on other individuals to enrich themselves.
The ones who are oblivious and encourage taxation need to wake up. They are the people who need to read articles like this one and begin to think. Once they understand the concept, they have a choice. Become a sick individual of the first group, or start making changes in their lives.
The ones who are benefiting solely out of necessity, I have every sympathy for. The government has destroyed and distorted the economy and society so bad millions of people have no choice but to take the governments handouts. In some cases their very survival depends on it. They are trapped in the governments web of depravity.
If you work for the government or directly benefit from the government’s extortion racket, try to get out. Try to find work in the private sector. Actively try to stop benefiting from the immoral acts of the government. Some things are impossible to avoid, like using the government roads. Use your judgment. Make positive changes.
Taxation is extortion. It is wrong, evil, bad, immoral. This is the undeniable truth. Truth does not require belief. It is true whether you choose to believe it or not. Denying it will not make it go away. It is time to take some action in your life to put an end to the government’s extortion racket.
