A Direct Hit On The Jugular

     Dan Gelernter’s column of today is a must-read. The Sunday punch:

     We—individuals, local governments, state governments—need to get off the drug of government money. Ultimately, it’s just our money but with all the freedom filtered out: We’re actually paying to be enslaved.

     I’d like to start a petition declaring a national federal tax holiday. Not asking the government for one—just declaring it. I’d say the performance of our government is unsatisfactory, and I’m not paying for it anymore until it gets its act together. No taxation without representation. Maybe we could ask Elon Musk to make a poll for that on Twitter—since it seems to be a more reliable method of collecting votes than our carefully supervised elections.

     BRAVO! This badly needed to be said – and Gelernter’s point that it must be We the People who declare and implement such a holiday, rather than any government official[s], is central to the idea.

     Remember your Lysander Spooner:

     All political power, as it is called, rests practically upon this matter of money. Any number of scoundrels, having money enough to start with, can establish themselves as a “government;” because, with money, they can hire soldiers, and with soldiers extort more money; and also compel general obedience to their will. It is with government, as Cæsar said it was in war, that money and soldiers mutually supported each other; that with money he could hire soldiers, and with soldiers extort money. So these villains, who call themselves governments, well understand that their power rests primarily upon money. With money they can hire soldiers, and with soldiers extort money. And, when their authority is denied, the first use they always make of money, is to hire soldiers to kill or subdue all who refuse them more money.

     For this reason, whoever desires liberty, should understand these vital facts, viz.: 1. That every man who puts money into the hands of a “government” (so called), puts into its hands a sword which will be used against himself, to extort more money from him, and also to keep him in subjection to its arbitrary will. 2. That those who will take his money, without his consent, in the first place, will use it for his further robbery and enslavement, if he presumes to resist their demands in the future.

     [From No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority.]

     I’d call this an idea whose time has come, though in truth it came long ago. And failing the arrival of a convenient planetoid, it’s about all we can do in the cause of freedom: our own and that of our descendants.