Taxation is Immoral and Borderline Slavery

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Some time ago I wrote a post explaining what taxation is and covering a few of the most relevant taxes for my readers. What I didn’t do there is express my personal opinion about taxes.

And I’m pretty opinionated on the topic.

If you earn your income legally or invest, we most probably share the same view.

You, like me, feel that part of what you own is stolen from you. You probably feel that you don’t have full rights to the fruits of your labor because most of them are snatched away before they even reach your wallet. And in the society we live in, we accepted it as “the way”.

We learned to be silent about it and not to question it.

However, although many of the people who feel robbed learned to be in peace with it, that doesn’t disprove the fact that the sole act of taxation is, if not theft, at least immoral. Especially with the rates bumped up just below the threshold at which it becomes intolerable and would cause a revolution.

Now, although working full time means working from January to June for the government and from July to December for yourself, there are some aspects of taxation that I get and approve.

Just to show that my views are not radical, I’ll dedicate a full section of this post to the good parts. The parts that I do see, address, and acknowledge. The parts that confuse tax slaves to accept giving away half of their income because the reasons behind it make marginal sense.

Taxation – The good parts

Although I don’t agree with everything each country does, as an earner, saver, and investor, I do appreciate certain aspects of taxation and tax spending.

Namely, I appreciate the existence of institutions creating a corruption-less environment, giving us a platform to earn and flourish in. The concept of contractual obligations breaching of which may be punishable under law.

The funding of responsible bodies so they can employ people to implement certain standards and regulations. I don’t agree with every one of those, but appreciate their sole existence.

I like the concept of: “these are the rules, let’s play” rather than no rules, ambiguity, and thus no play.

I acknowledge the regulated markets and economy in which we can work, earn, and invest. And something that we may take for granted – for the system that makes possible to have legal ownership over our wealth. For having the option to put my name on my home on country’s land so I’m not kicked out by a stronger passenger.

I also acknowledge that we’re paying for protection in general. Not only in terms of military, but also in terms of being able to live in a society where what is defined as crime is punished, enabling the residents to walk freely on the streets minding their own business.

The reason I mentioned “what is defined as crime” instead of just crime is because in many countries tax avoidance is punished way more severely than breaking in someone’s home. While at it, none of this justifies the fact that the tax rates are extremely high and the costs are mostly covered by those who benefit the least from them.

But before going further I want to say: I’m not against funding government services that add value to the society, such as protection or infrastructure.

But the current form of generating tax revenue and how it’s actually spent… That’s what this post is about.

So let’s address it.

Taxation – The 99%

Or Taxation – The bad parts. Let’s start with a thought experiment:

Slavery is when people are dispossessed of 100% of their production. What does that make you?

Tax slaves may argue that we’re paying for the above mentioned services. However, an intelligent human being can agree with that and still start arguing that the price for those services is, simply, too high.

But we already covered that.

What about this: we’re also paying for services that are enforced. Services that we don’t need and we didn’t ask for.

Have you thought about that?

It’s surreal how tax slaves are more comfortable with throwing food off their kids’ tables than thinking.

The reality is that all the “benefits” that we supposedly have for granted (no) are pushed down our throats whether we like it or not. And even worse, those exact benefits are used as a justification to steal half of our income.

But remember: a person is not entitled to a job. If the government guarantees it and pays the salaries, then income taxes might make sense.

However, what I observe is that people are paying for traditional education that’s provided by the government. That people are paying to acquire skills or get qualified in alternative ways without government assistance. That people hustle to get jobs in the private sector. And still half of their income is withheld and sent to an entity which brainwashed them to think that gave them the jobs.

And don’t forget that communal taxes, road taxes, water taxes, or any structure they thought about to expropriate the maximum amount are not even included in these payments.

“Well, who should cover those?”

Which?! “Those” taxes shouldn’t exist in isolation!

We’re all already giving away around 50% of our income.

In many countries aspiring to adopt a proven-to-fail system this number is close to 100% with all the direct and indirect taxes accumulated.

And the saddest part – the whole world is moving in that direction… While everyone remains blind to the fact that taxation is immoral, theft, and borderline slavery. Should be illegal in its current form.

You’re not contributing to the tax revenue because you want to. You’re contributing because you have to. Don’t forget that the alternative is either jail or death.

And about the extreme tax rates the sheep keep ignoring – for every hour of not being with your children that you give to your employer, you give another one to the government. You may think that you’re not, but in reality you are. If that wouldn’t be the case, you wouldn’t work. Because if you do work, you do it so you can eat and feed your family. Maybe not exclusively, but certainly primarily.

Wealth redistribution

Anyway, I can go on and on talking about tax… But my biggest problem with it is too much focus on social security in the developed world.

When I said that we’re already giving away 50% of our income, I nearly heard triggered tax slaves screaming:

“But most of that is social security!”

To which I can only respond with:

Exactly!

The exact thing that breeds ignorance and rewards laziness.

I’ll get a bit theoretical now, so bear with me.

I don’t agree with using the tax revenue to redistribute wealth.

Once again, bear with me.

First of all, the “less fortunate” is too broad of a category to be uniformly defined or its participants equally treated.

But they are, especially in countries trying to downgrade to socialism.

And don’t get me wrong – people should support each other. People should be charitable and the government should assist people that are sick, intellectually challenged, or incapacitated of work. People who shouldn’t be put in the same basket with capable beings abusing the tax benefits.

And they’re easy to exploit – it’s the ideal platform actually. A framework where the hard-working are punished and the lazy are rewarded.

If you grew up in a bubble or had a childhood where the government held your hand, I’m sure this will be hard to accept. But at least give it a chance and you may understand that you were the exception and not the rule. For every person that got a tax relief on his rent while studying there are more than one person who aren’t contributing to society just because they can.

I’ll skip the part that it’s actually unfair to distribute money to people who don’t earn when you earn that money from the people that do earn. Especially when it’s not voluntary but forced. I already hear a certain type of people screaming arguments that everyone deserves to eat etc., but they’re so narrow minded that they fell for their government’s best set of tricks.

Congratulations, you adopted a model of the reality that has a great idea behind it, but a brutal and discriminatory implementation of it.

But as I said, even if you disagree, at least hear me out. I’m not asking you to change your views and, of course, feel free to be consistent with your beliefs afterwards. But just while reading this post, keep your mind open. Maybe I’ll share an idea or two that will make sense, so feel free to evaluate them further.

Let’s start here: I think that people should have equal opportunities.

I think that inequality in the context of opportunities creates tension, increases crime rates, and breeds corruption.

And still, I don’t agree with wealth redistribution.

How come?

It’ simple and already covered: Getting money for doing nothing incentivizes laziness.

Period.

Those who don’t see this are probably people who somehow enjoy(ed) government benefits or are too young. Most, but not all, were people who were incentivized not to work and were lazy enough to accept it.

What to do about it?

Okay, I stated the problem clearly enough, but if I’m only a loud mouth accusing the system of doing something wrong, than I’m not much different than the typical tax slave.

But I am different.

When I define a problem, I feel comfortable following up with at least an idea about how to approach it.

So, how can we achieve equality without taking from the hard working minority and throwing dollar bills at the ignorant, lazy, indoctrinated majority?

Social security done the right way

I mean, isn’t it obvious? Since the root cause is (lack of) money, let’s create a framework where everyone can get some.

So, wealth shouldn’t be redistributed. There should be equal opportunities for everyone.

Money shouldn’t be given away. They should stimulate people to work.

It’s that simple!

If a person who was born in the suburbs has equal opportunities as a person born in the capital, there will be absolutely no need to steal from the latter to gift to the former.

If money is used as a tool to motivate people to build a better life, they’ll strive to earn more rather than being satisfied with 70% of the minimal salary just because he can survive on that.

And I hear you – “people in villages don’t have the same opportunities as those in big cities“.

But that’s the exact place where I think that the tax revenue should be spent.

Not on giving away free money, but on expanding the platform to earn. You don’t fix a PC that won’t turn on by adjusting the screen resolution. You seek the root cause and attack it directly. The analogy may not be perfect, but it’s more than good enough.

So, actually give the opportunities to everyone. Invest in education, transportation, reliable services, etc. I’m not saying that everyone should be equally productive, but everyone should have the opportunity to be.

And for those who decide to stay and work in smaller places, I’d be supportive incentivizing businesses in certain regions in lower paying industries (through subsidies, not free support). And please don’t confuse those with entitled sloths striving on social security, because that’s the same mistake the governments make when there’s equal help / redistribution for everyone.

Am I missing something?

An argument can be made that some people are born into wealth and were dealt a better hand. That is technically correct but not an argument for wealth redistribution. Here’s the solution: tax gifts and inheritance at a higher rate and abolish the current form of social security. That’s how you achieve equality.

Also, that’s how you help businesses produce more, cut less costs, and ultimately employ more people which won’t need further transfer payments.

And just to put the nail in the coffin: anyone can find a job in a developed country. People looking for fast reward shouldn’t be assisted from the government. That contributes to unproductivity, or effectively to boredom and crime.

A single counter argument I can foresee at this point is “what about stupid people?”.

I don’t buy it.

Reward intelligence with money and see how everyone can adapt. Because what I observe in western EU is exactly the opposite.

Meanwhile, please let’s not act like the majority of jobs require the employees to be geniuses. It’s a matter of showing up and doing the work until a robot becomes more profitable.

Yes, discipline is all it takes for most jobs. And people lacking discipline shouldn’t be rewarded with free money.

You see? Full circle and we ended up with the same conclusion.

And now, when everyone has equal opportunities, we can all decide how much stress / effort / time we want to endure / put / invest and expect to be compensated accordingly.

The person who wants to earn 500$ can work less time and put less effort than the one striving to enter the two comma club. Nobody should take income for granted.

And the labor force, it will not be only bigger but also stronger, striving in a growing economy and producing way more in tax revenue.

And then… Tax us all equally – at a humane rate of 10-15% for the benefits described in the “Taxation – The Good Parts” section.

Beautiful.

And once again: I know that some people actually need government’s support. I’m not against that. I just think that “less fortunate” is too broad of a category to be uniformly defined. Just for the record, I feel extremely comfortable saying all of this because the opportunities I had in my life would certainly put me in the “less fortunate” category.

I know nothing about entitlement.

But that’s as personal as I’ll get in this post. Subscribe below to receive a mail each time I publish a new one to be up to date.

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