When Did You Realize You Were Being Robbed?
It's been happening forever, but there was a time when you didn't know it.
Earlier this month, we discussed the many cognitive biases that prevent people from realizing that government is a morally illegitimate scam. It’s a complex tapestry of confusion, rationalization, inertia, and fear.
Government is a protection racket. It is a scam that confers special rights on officials, including the right to take your property and give it to themselves and their allies.
Taxation is theft. Taxation is extortion. Taxation is slavery. You did not consent to it; therefore, it is illegitimate. And yet, because of status quo bias, the mere presence of government feels like proof of its legitimacy.
Status quo bias (default bias) is a cognitive bias in which people prefer the existing state of affairs because it is the existing state of affairs. But before you can have that bias, you must be aware that there is an alternative to the existing state of affairs. This might be called an availability constraint: a limitation on belief or choice arising not from disagreement with an option, but from unawareness that the option exists at all.
The two of them together—availability constraint + status quo bias—form a high wall. This is part of the reason why libertarians (and especially anarchists) are fewer in number. First, you have to become aware that an alternative exists. And then you have to overcome the strong preference most people feel for the status quo.
I suffered from my own variant of this many years ago. Like you, I was born into a world where government and taxes seemed to be a fact of nature. So, like most people, I simply took it for granted.
Normal people do not have the right to steal from each other, but government officials have a special right to steal from everyone. Why yes, of course that is perfectly normal. Why would you think otherwise?
There was a time when what seems so obvious to me now—that taxation is theft, extortion, and slavery—just wasn’t in my cognitive range. I might argue about tax rates or types of taxes, but I took it for granted that some sort of taxes were legitimate for no reason other than that I had never considered the possibility that they weren’t. Because this is just how we do things.
Like many realizations, the wrongness of this came slowly, and then suddenly. Aided by reading the greats of our field, it finally got through my thick head: no one has a legitimate claim to ANY of the property of another.
Not the taxman, nor his enforcer, nor the recipients of government spending.
Not even Jane Q. Virtuesignaler, who desperately needs to be generous with other people’s money.
No one.
When I finally fully accepted that a 1 percent tax is just as morally impermissible as a 99 percent tax, I felt righteous anger. I wrote “IT’S NOT YOURS” on a post-it note and slammed it onto the wall.
Then I felt shame for not realizing it sooner.
So what is the purpose of my post today?
To loose a new meme into the wild, because it is #MemeMonday. (I never understood why we would want to use a bad man like Gus Fring for this meme template, but the tribe has spoken, so here we are.) In this case, the meme’s ire is directed at voters rather than at the government, but that’s fine. They deserve it too.
To remind everyone that taxation is theft, extortion, and slavery.
To argue for clemency for people who haven’t figured this out yet. None of us was born a full-fledged anarcho-libertarian. We had to learn it. Please be understanding toward those who haven’t gotten there yet. I know it is frustrating that they haven’t realized what now seems obvious, but remember that there was a time (even if it was many years ago) when it wasn't obvious to you, too. Help them to get there.
Of course, if they do understand that taxation is theft, extortion, and slavery, and they still like it…well, they do not deserve any respect at all.
I realized the theft when I first opened my business 40 years ago. I kept perfect books. I didn’t buy anything personally. My business grew but every penny and the little bit of personal money I had went into the business. My accountant told me I owed thousands in taxes, thousands I didn’t have.
As the years went on I told him that every time I go to his office I feel like I’m throwing a rope over a tree limb, tying a noose, stepping up onto a two legged stool, and put the noose around my neck. Then I wait to lose my balance when the bills or worse start rolling in.
After COVID hit, and government, big pharma, and the government medical establishment all robbed the treasury and at the same time forced people like my wife to get dangerous experimental chemical injections at the expense of the taxpayer it confirmed what I knew 40 years ago. The elites and the people they pick get wealthy beyond anyone’s wildest dreams and the middle class and the poor go more into debt, closer to extreme poverty.
Not just the taxman; let's talk about fiat currency...