Letters by a modern St. Ferdinand III about cults

The State intones that higher taxes and ever-more government is 'moral' and your 'duty'. Coerced, appropriated and stolen income to pay for a myriad of services, programs and transfers is hardly moral, or a part of your civic duty. It is state-mandated theft to fund a variety of causes about which the average tax-payer knows little or nothing. The state becomes the dispenser not only of income, but redistributive 'justice', enriching its allies, or its client-citizenry who depend upon it. Apparently the hysteria around 'Globalisation' was based in part on the 'race to the bottom', in which those mysterious, faceless and evil market forces would 'eviscerate' the nation state, and disembowel statist programs. In the real world, the state has managed and co-opted the very tepid and weak form of 'Globalization' that we now have. Even regionalism in the guise of regional trade or currency pacts, has benefited the individual nation state and enriched its coffers immeasurably. Governments now consume upwards of 50% of GDP when one adds in direct taxation, deficits, regulatory costs and – which is never accounted for – the yearly share of all the balance sheet debt and future liabilities which total some 8 times the value of GDP. In other words, you need to capitalise and expense your future debt obligations. If you owe $100 billion in future pensions, you better start reflecting that on your current balance sheet by expensing some portion of it, which would conform to GAAP and common-sense. But that is never done or even brought up by the great and good. It is as if real obligations are but a mirage which can, with the wave of say the Great Obama's divine hand, be wished away and the world transformed into a magical paradise of rainbows and sunshine.

As the state increases its grip around people's necks and wallets, we should expect, or at least hope for, a grassroots tax revolt. It is unlikely that governments will cut spending. Too many votes and children's futures to lose. It is highly likely they will increase taxes and fees. Too many 'rich' people who are 'abusing' the system, not to mention evil corporations who 'crush' the worker and enslave the immigrant. They must pay their 'fair share', in order to 'equalize' incomes and opportunity and promote 'our values'.

Maybe our future will mimic the angst which promoted the 1930s tax revolt: [bold is mine]

“Depression-era taxpayers had perhaps even greater reason to be angry than their modern counterparts. Property values plummeted after 1929 but tax reassessments lagged. Overall, taxes nearly doubled to 21.1% of national income in 1932 from 11.6% in 1929, according to a 1940 Tax Policy Institute report.

Meanwhile, unemployment skyrocketed. Local property tax delinquency rose to a record (still standing) of 26.3% in 1933, from 10.1% in 1930. In many places, the tax system broke down and payment became almost voluntary. Throughout the country, Americans formed "taxpayers' leagues" to demand spending cuts, arguing that since they had tightened their belts, politicians should too. According to an article in the National Municipal Review, at least 3,000 such groups had emerged by 1933 compared to only 47 in 1927. Because of tax league pressure, 19 states and numerous localities brought property levies under control by capping mill rates or limiting overall property taxes to a percentage of assessed value.

In 1932, New York Times journalist Anne O'Hare McCormick noted that "the nearest thing to a political revolution in the country is the tax revolt. . . . Taxpayers are wrought up to the point of willingness to give up public services. 'We'll do without county agents,' they say. 'We'll give up the public health service.'" ....

While most tax leaguers emphasized conventional legal approaches, a few pressed more radical measures. The best known was the Association of Real Estate Taxpayers in Chicago, which led one of the largest tax strikes in American history. At its height in 1933, it had 30,000 paid members, a budget of $600,000, and a weekly radio show. The strikers so angered Mayor Anton Cermak in 1932 that he threatened to cut off their city water. During a special visit to Washington, D.C., Cermak implored Congress to send "money now or militia later." It did neither.

Condemned as "anarchists" and "public enemies," the strikers, as well as mainstream tax leaguers, faced a level of invective that matched any endured by tea partiers. Noting that the city had a 40% tax delinquency, the head of an organization of Chicago school principals charged "Forty percent citizenship is no less dangerous and perilous to the government of America today than it was in the days of Benedict Arnold."

Of course rising up to demand lower taxes is only done by the 'barbarous' and 'greedy'. In reality, governments have twice as much money as they need to possess. Once governments control more than 30% of GDP there is a negative correlation with wealth, job creation and social improvement. National socialism whether in the guise of Nazism, Russian 'Communism', or the Welfare-Capitalist state of today always fails. It ignores the laws not only of economics, but of culture, morality and history.