Uncle Sam's Protection Racket

Kevin Dempsey Peterson (peterson@ocf.Berkeley.EDU)
Thu, 9 Apr 1998 23:52:59 -0700 

If we want to put up flyers to remind people that next wednesday is "Pay
Your Tribute or Else" day, here's my idea.  I could probably also do a
serious analysis of why libertarians oppose taxation, but I don't know
if people would actually read them.  Comments?

         Uncle Sam's Protection Racket

      The tax system is nothing but legalized theft. More
      specifically, it is a legalized protection racket.

      The gang ("the government"), tells all of its victims ("the
      citizens"), that they must pay protection money ("taxes") for
      the privilege of living in a given area. Anyone who refuses to
      pay the protection money is given a warning by professional
      extortionists ("auditors"). If the unfortunate victim fails to
      heed the warning, he is visited by even more dangerous thugs
      ("the police") who kidnap him at gun point ("arrest him") and
      hold him in captivity as an example for anyone else who may
      get uppity.

      In order to make collection easier, the massive organized
      crime syndicate leads its victims to believe that the thugs
      are providing a service ("national defense"), wherein they
      murder groups of people every few years in gang wars ("wars")
      to maintain their exclusive right to extort money from the
      people in their territory. Occasionally, some of the less
      rational victims will be so swayed by this propaganda that
      they will be willing to fight competing gangs with the goal of
      allowing the current mob to extort from even more people. If
      the propaganda doesn't work well enough, the mob may find it
      necessary to force people to fight for them ("the draft").

      As libertarians, we find this extortion morally repugnant, and
      reject the authority of any band of robbers (under whatever
      name) to force, by threats backed up by violence, anyone to
      perform any action they do not wish to. If you would like to
      learn more about these issues, we encourage you to come to
      meetings of the Cal Libertarians, every Wednesday at 6:30pm in
      206 Dwinelle. For more information, Call Mako at xxx-xxxx,
      email callib@ocf.berkeley.edu, or visit our website at
      http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~callib.