Thousands Refuse to Pay Up on Tax Day Because it Funds War—Give Money to Charity Instead

 

As the United States military and its allies continue to escalate  conflicts in Syria and throughout the Middle East, an anti-war group is  carrying out nationwide protests on Tax Day to oppose war funding. The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC), made a statement  last week calling for an end to war and proposing a massive movement of  tax resistance. The organization has coordinated Tax Day protests since  1983 and their message is more important now than it has ever been. According to the group’s website: 

“The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee  supports individuals who refuse to pay for war, and promotes war tax  resistance in the context of a broad range of nonviolent strategies for  social change. Through the redirection of our tax dollars, war tax  resisters contribute directly to the struggle for peace and justice for  all. NWTRCC  is a coalition of local, regional, and national groups and individuals  from across the United States. For everyone interested in or actively  refusing to pay taxes for war, NWTRCC  offers information, referral, support, resources, publicity, campaign  sponsorship, and connection to an international network of conscientious  objectors to war taxes.”

Some activists, who are openly refusing to pay their taxes to the IRS are instead donating the money to humanitarian programs. 

People’s Life Fund member Susan Quinlan said, “There are so many  excellent groups that are working to protect families, communities and  the natural environment, and we are delighted to support these efforts. With  U.S. military spending surpassing $1 trillion, we invite others to  imagine what good could come from redirecting these military funds on a  grand scale.” 

“Tax resistance is a way to address all of the overwhelming  issues facing the earth and its people at this time where literally  everything of importance and of value to our communities is under  attack,” said Noura Khouri, an activist who marched in Oakland, California. Another resister, Bill Glassmire of Corvallis, Oregon, said, “I  am resisting war taxes in order to redirect resources away from U.S.  militarism and routine violence and toward building a peaceful and  healthy earth.”     

The time has come to start thinking unconventionally when considering  alternatives to the current methods of funding community projects. As  it stands right now our civilization is forced to fund projects  involuntarily through coercive taxation. The force and violence involved  with the collection of taxes are only scratching the surface of the  negative consequences that this practice has on our society. Let’s take a  moment to hash out the implications of coercive taxation. Since the government is allowed to extract money from the people by  force, this guarantees they will have funds for any project they want,  even if those projects are unpopular with taxpayers. 

This is because the  public has no choice but to pay taxes, therefore they have no say in  how their money is used. Thus the tax-paying public end up paying for their own oppression and  unjust wars around the world. Sure, there are some social welfare  programs that assist people, but the cost of these projects is a tiny  fraction of the money that is actually received via taxation. 

Most of  the money that is stolen through taxation is used for bureaucratic  budgets, collection enforcement, and the gluttony of federal and state  governments. So while a portion of the revenue is being used for beneficial  projects, a majority of the money is still being wasted or used for  nefarious purposes. Imagine a thief giving you five dollars while also  taking a hundred dollars from your back pocket. 

One of the most common complaints about the government is  that it does not truly serve the public. The reason for this is  simple—the government gets paid regardless of whether or not the people  are satisfied.

This means they have no incentive to actually listen to the public  they depend on for funding. Likewise, the disharmony between the state  and citizen inevitably leads to mismanagement, violence, and corruption.  On the other hand, if community projects were funded through voluntary  means people would only pay for the services they wanted. This would  likely lead to a lack of funding and the eventual collapse of  authoritarian governments as they were faced with either extracting  funding from the public using physical force or adjusting their own  behavior. 

Under these circumstances wars would be prevented, small businesses  would have an easier time competing in the marketplace, and trillions of  dollars in wasted overhead would either be back with its rightful  owners or used in beneficial social projects and programs. If someone  wanted to invade territories halfway around the world or put together an  oppressive bureaucracy like the Department of Homeland Security, they  would lose funding because most people would not willingly support their  authoritarian adventures. 

This is the whole concept behind voluntarily funding  community projects: good service will render payment from the public,  while poor service will lead to a lack of a customer base and thus a  lack of funding. 

There is an unbelievable amount of fear directed at this concept  because for most of history our civilizations have been propelled by  violence, instead of a balance of compassion and logic. Immediately upon  hearing about these ideas of doing away with coercive taxation, many  people who are new to the idea will immediately scoff, “if taxes  were not collected under threat of force then no one would pay them!  There will be chaos and the poor will die in the streets!” It is time to recognize that forced taxation is not working for the average person and ideas like “the consent of the governed” and “the social contract”  are complete fallacies. We must acknowledge that there is a growing  discontent among Americans. The two corporate political parties are  losing support and people are losing faith in the system itself. 

Do we really think that the public would choose to sign a contract  agreeing to have one-third of their earnings stolen to pay for the  government’s actions? If not, then it surely cannot be said that the  system of involuntary taxation is any type of consensual relationship.  And if the relationship is not consensual and voluntary, then it is not  legitimate. If tax revenue was put into projects of value to the people they  would be more likely to voluntarily contribute money. Although our  culture projects a pretty bleak view of human nature, our world is  filled with a diverse spectrum of people who are kind and care a great  deal about their neighbors. Recent studies have even shown that  compassion might be hard-wired into the human genome. 

While it is true that people are naturally driven by incentives, most  people also exercise empathy for their fellow human beings and are  driven to help others when possible. In fact, helping others and the  emotional reward it provides is often the incentive needed to drive  people to help others. In fact, Americans donated more than $358 billion  to charities in 2014. 

This is after the public had already been mugged  for one-third of their income by the government. Imagine how much they  would have given had they been able to keep all of their income and had  the reassurance of knowing their money was actually being spent  correctly. Not to mention, imagine if all the money the public gives to  wasted political campaigns was redirected to projects that the community  actually wanted. 

There is no need to force compassion and anyone who claims that  charity must be forced does not have your best interest at heart. The  myth that the public benefits from taxation is just an elaborate  advertising scheme that attempts to justify its existence. 

Even mobster  Al Capone ran soup kitchens in Chicago so the people would overlook his  crimes and see him as a charitable man. The government takes the same approach by spending some of their  pocket change on welfare programs and community projects, but all of  this is only done out of an obligation to maintain the appearance of  effective management of tax revenue. 

There could be essential life-saving programs that would always be  receiving donations, and available to everyone in the community—whether  they donate or not. Since these areas are so vital to life they would  likely receive the funding needed due to the high value of the service.  For example, water treatment plants, firefighters, or community gardens  would have no problem with funding because they are in high demand. 

Beyond the basic necessities, a myriad of secondary programs and  services from transportation, internet, and space exploration could also  be funded through voluntary donations from the community. Remember, as a  result of the lack of overhead and enforcement costs which inflate all  bureaucratic budgets, this would likely be cheap in comparison to the  prices that we see today on public projects. Some may be concerned that it would be hard to achieve community  goals on a voluntary basis, but this would actually improve the  efficiency and value of public services. 

Oftentimes government-funded  jobs don’t even see completion! It is unbelievably common for Western governments to start popular  programs during election years to gain public support, only to later  pull the plug so the funds can be used for wars or bailouts. This kind  of manipulative behavior takes place all the time. However, when there  is a project that has enough support, it will usually receive sufficient  donations from individuals, businesses and charity organizations to  keep the program operating. 

This can clearly be seen in the explosion of online crowdfunding  websites and campaigns. We also saw this in the United States in 2011,  when the government pulled the plug on funding for the SETI space program  in the midst of a half dozen wars and major austerity measures. This  was a program that the public felt so strongly about that over 2,000  donations were received in a single week, easily surpassing their goal  of $200,000. When a need arises in a community, people naturally and spontaneously  come together to take care of what needs to be done. 

They don’t need a  bureaucrat with a gun in their face forcing them to do it.  For our  species to have a future we must start thinking about more peaceful ways  of doing business. We must stop justifying the use of violence in all  circumstances—even “soft-core” violence like government legislation,  taxation, and indoctrination. 

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:

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My name is John Vibes and I am an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. I write for numerous alternative media websites, including The Free Thought Project @tftproject and The Mind Unleashed. In addition to my first book, Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance, I have also co-authored three books with Derrick Broze @dbroze : The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality, Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion and Manifesto of the Free Humans

I just won a 3-year-long battle with cancer, and will be working to help others through my experience, if you wish to contribute to my medical bills, consider subscribing to my podcast on Patreon.