What if 1M Taxpayers Went Galt?

Glenn Beck wonders what would happen if a million taxpayers stopped paying taxes. He suggests that they can’t put us all in jail. I’d like to remind him that they can take our property and garnish our wages. Sure, a taxpayer under those circumstances might not be caged. But he certainly would not be free.

There’s certainly no reason we cannot, as Ghandi suggested, withhold payment of taxes, yet still stay within the law. Just make the decision to earn less. That’s a difficult decision for people to make as it involves a bit of personal sacrifice, but it’s far less sacrifice than the penalties for tax evasion, and it’s more effective.

For conservatives who want to take the fight to the left using the left’s methods, it’s a tailor-made solution. (Which is why leftists scream like banshees and mock those who promote it. They know it will work.) It means taking advantage of the Cloward-Piven tactic of overloading the system until it collapses. The work slowdowns by slaves were a similar form of protest – when the system relies on your productivity, then the failure to be productive will eventually collapse the system. A final example may be found in the Montgomery bus boycott; people made personal sacrifices and worked around every obstacle but they did not give in.

The left’s idea that the nanny state will take care of us all is, to use the word of which they are so fond, unsustainable. It’s unsustainable in any event – it’s never worked before, and it’s not going to work now. This is one area where we can take Vladimir Putin’s word at face value. The Chinese, too, are worried because they know the American left is doing great harm not just to the United States but to the world’s economy. The outcome is not in doubt. The only variable is the speed at which it happens. I hope to hasten the inevitable collapse.

As a practical matter, what can we do?

You don’t need to break the law to give less to government. But if you are willing to consider breaking the law, then you should have no problem considering making a few personal sacrifices which will not put you in jail. As an added benefit, these “sacrifices” often come with great benefits for families that do them.

If you’re sending your children to private school, consider one parent quitting their job and homeschooling the children. You don’t need to be a teacher. There are many great programs available so you do not have to plan a curriculum and schedule. Your children will be freed from busywork and the tyranny of the slowest or least behaved student in the class. When they can learn at their own pace, they learn more.

Look for ways to cut your budget, and then cut your income accordingly. The average family spent approximately one of every three food dollars on meals eaten away from the home in 1997. Imagine the effect on the system if a million families stopped doing that. How much does your family spend on entertainment? Wait until that movie comes out on DVD, or better yet, hits your public library’s shelf. When you rent a movie, watch it with friends so they don’t have to rent it too. Don’t buy a new car. Buy a used car. Whenever possible, barter.

There are a million creative ways you can save money and find ways to survive (and thrive) on less income. And because you are trading money for time, you will have more leisure time available to take advantage of money saving tricks like making your own laundry detergent for a fraction of the cost.

The bottom line is if we are serious about protesting what is happening in our government, then we should be equally serious about making day to day changes in our lives. It lacks the “glamor” of tax evasion but it will be far more effective. We have an opportunity, right now, while the Democrats have control of the White House and Congress, to show how empty and lacking in reality that their big-government promises are. The house of cards is going to fall anyway, but if they fall hard enough, it will be many generations before they are able to muster up the support to try this again.

If you think it’s a good idea to stop paying taxes, then do it by going Galt.

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Added: As a Christian, tax evasion is not even an option. We are required to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.  But in the United States, because we are a federal republic, part of what is Caesar’s is participation in government; taking the time to be informed and involved, and going Galt is a form of that engagement in politics.

Note: Yes, I’m aware that Atlas Shrugged is poorly written. Yes, I’m aware that Rand was a raging athiest who thought people like me are idiots for believing in God. I espouse objectivism from my perspective as a Christian Hedonist. Yes, I’m aware that John Galt created an amazing machine and that the loss to society of me and people like me is nothing compared to how that fictional genius inventor deprived his society of his talents. Yes, I’m aware that we don’t have a large, hidden, gulch to which to relocate and that we will continue to economically interact with society at some level. “Going Galt” is nothing more than verbal shorthand for suggesting that the productive people on whom society depends deprive government of tax revenue in order to starve it.
Cross posted at Hot Air’s Green Room.