How much government do we actually need?

The famous line from the 1948 movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre was: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”

The line worked well in the novel and the subsequent movie, speaking roughly of living in a frontier environment where he who has the fastest gun possesses the only authority.

Thankfully, we no longer live in such a rough-and-tumble society, and a powerful government is often purported to be the antidote for such lawlessness. But is government in fact the reason why there is law and order?

Many libertarians think the current social order is the same as in the Old West, only the bandits have exchanged their golden sombreros for three-piece suits. And those libertarians who believe that We The People need to recapture individual control of our government and limit its influence over our lives provides a far better solution to today’s problems.

Unfortunately, there are many short-sighted people who equate more rules and government bureaucracy to a greater amount of civilization. The facts, however, don’t bear this out.

Take what’s currently going on in Spain. For more than half a year, this European country has operated without an elected government, as the national population is seriously divided and can’t form a coalition. This means that, although government-provided services like police, public transportation and garbage continue, lawmakers are left without any direction — and true authority to move on their corrupt initiatives.

The services have continued largely because Spanish law provides a healthy amount of power to its 17 regional governments.

According to a New York Times article in October 2016, Spaniards are plenty pleased about it too, envisioning a country without any new authoritarian invasions of rights and private property by lawyers and politicians.

“No government, no thieves,” teacher Felix Pastor proclaimed to the New York Times writer.

“Spain would be just fine if we got rid of most of the politicians and three-fourths of government employees,” added pharmacist Rafael Navarro.

A Vox article reported that only 2.3% of Spanish respondents in a July 2016 poll thought the lack of government was the biggest problem the country faces. That number has been decreasing as the citizens realize people get along just fine without government meddling.

The nation of 47 million has been on a steady economic growth curve, boasting increased activity that is twice the regional average. The situation in Spain is not the only example of less government, more personal interaction by the citizenry. In 2014, the police in Acapulco, Mexico, went on strike, and it was reported that many residents didn’t seem to care whether the cops returned to work.

“Weeks went on and you could tell that almost everybody had become aware of the lack of transit police and no one was adhering to red lights if there wasn’t any oncoming traffic,” said Acapulco resident Jeff Berwick. “The majority of people began treating red lights like a ‘yield’ sign. They’d slow down, check that no cars were coming, and if there weren’t, they’d just roll through the red light instead of sitting there for a minute or two, as traffic backed up behind them.”

Services were provided voluntarily by conscientious citizens, on an as-need basis. This helped create a greater sense of community and provided each person with a measure of autonomy and personal responsibility to his fellow citizens. All this feeds into a fundamental need for each human being to have both rights and responsibilities, to think hard about how their actions affect others, and to exercise caution when acting on their decisions.

“What is currently going on in Spain reinforces the basic premise that people are happier, and the economy grows faster when government is limited,” said Adele Weiss, principal at Weiss+Associates, a European-based consultancy firm specializing in the U.S. federal income tax. “We are based here in southern Spain, and people around town seem considerably happier and more autonomous knowing the yoke of federal bureaucracy isn’t choking them off.”

Weiss added that American Nationals can learn a lot from the Spanish if they were more proactive about limiting the powers granted to the National Government.

“Americans need to realize that the federal income tax is voluntary. The federal income tax was never imposed upon American Nationals, living and working in the private sector. The 16th Amendment was only levied upon the National Government (meaning those who work for it). For those American Nationals who have been misled into believing that it was levied upon American Nationals within the Constitutional Republic and have been filing and paying, the U.S. Congress has provided a statute in the Internal Revenue Code that states American Nationals can revoke the ‘voluntary election’ they made to join the U.S. Tax Club when they filed their first Form 1040 income-tax return,” added Weiss, whose firm boasts a clientele of over 3,000 Americans.

“If they continue to contribute funds to the National Government, that beast will only continue in its current path of unaccountable and irresponsible spending. It’s up to each American to decide what kind of government you want - big and authoritarian, or limited and servile. You vote with each dollar you spend on what kind of life you prefer. Life without government pilfering your income by its lies of omission provides Americans more freedom from the government and the opportunity to actually save money for their retirement devoid of the heavy progressive income-tax scheme created by the U.S. Congress over 100 years ago.”

Americans are starting to see that lawful options do exist to end the excessive and unjust burden of an income tax that was only levied upon a single jurisdiction referred to as the District of Columbia and its U.S. Territories. With more money in your pocket, you too will see that the least government is the best government and one should only pay those taxes that actually apply rather than those which are based on presumption of liability.

Weiss’ firm offers a Revocation of Election document that lawfully terminates any requirement to file a Form 1040 income tax return for the current year and all future years. More information about this process can be found at http://www.weissparis.com/july4.html.

People with questions about this and other asset protection topics can email the firm at [email protected].