The hell am I paying for?

Can anyone give me a straight answer if I ask what the benefit of society is. Last year I paid more taxes than ever before, and I do not understand why. I am supposed to receive certain services and protections by paying fees to the government, but I receive nothing but inconvenience. Between income tax, sales tax, property tax and God knows what else, the cost of government is by far my biggest expense. Don’t get me wrong I don’t like any bills but at least I understand where my money is going and why. I pay my cell plan to communicate, I pay my energy company for electricity, I even gladly pay the various insurance companies a premium for financial protection against the unknown. But why do I pay my taxes every year. Probably because if I didn’t, I would have my property acquiesced by the state and I would go to jail for tax evasion. That’s not a very good reason. I’m supposed to get roads and security and maybe even some unemployment benefits if I need it. But wait, aren’t those benefits of municipal and state governments. Where does the 30% of my income go? It doesn’t pay for police in neighborhood, nor the roads I drive on or the parks I walk my dog. By a percentage standpoint most of my income goes to blowing up children in countries I can’t find on a map and whose names I can’t even pronounce correctly. The rest goes to social security, and Medicare that I’ll most likely never receive and the last of it goes right in pockets of the people who take it.

              Let’s be severely honest here. Do you really feel safe and secure in this country? Our boarders are basically imaginary lines in the dirt, crime in our cities is out of control and our currency is losing value faster than Beanie Babies. There are plenty of approaches to safeguard yourself without the need of a governing body. I have personally given myself far more peace of mind by appeasing the problems that I can control. I can buy a gun to defend myself better than a department of police could. I can invest my money in far safer and exponentially more appreciating assets than a savings account, 401k, or social security. I can even become totally self-reliant and live in the woods if I really wanted too. This is all true, but I would still be beholden to same tax requirements. That is the overarching problem. Even if I don’t want or need the benefits provided by government, I still must pay for everyone else’s. There are givers and there are takers in this world but there would be far less takers we weren’t mandated to give.

              The altruistic man would say “it is our duty to help our fellow man, why should we thrive while others suffer in this county”. Then the socialist would say “it’s better to pool all of our resources and share the wealth so that we all can prosper”. And the politician would cry “we need more money to help the misfortunate, the more we take from everyone else, the more people we can help and save”. And I would say to those individuals “If our government could actually save everyone with money, how could they keep asking for it”.

              The problems exist to perpetuate the system. If the issues were fixed, then there would be no need for the system anymore. We have enough food to feed everyone on the planet but half of us go to bed hungry. We have enough wealth for everyone to retire comfortably but most work until they’re dead. We have the technology to solve virtually all our problems, yet they persist. The system of government is not designed to solve problems, it is programmed to prolong the issues and feed itself. If tomorrow government solved all our problems, we would have no need for it anymore. The more miserable the population the more appeasement needed from a higher power. The more difficult and expensive life becomes, the more we need a helping hand just to get by. Life is not supposed to be this hard!

Imagine a world without a federal government. In fact, get rid of state and municipal government as well and replace them all with your neighborhood HOA. You now get to keep all your income, your property belongs to you and no one else, sales and excise tax don’t exist, and the roads are super bumpy. No one is telling anyone what to do, no one is required to do a damn thing and its basically total anarchy. What will most people do in a crazy world like this. Well, they’ll probably just go work. You still have to eat, don’t you? The free market still exists, along with all the infrastructure, companies, jobs and money. Life goes on.

              “But who determines the value of money?” The market does, and now there’s no one to print any excess dollars to devalue said money. The money in your savings now appreciates over time and interest rates are determined by a competitive market.

              “Who’s going to pick up all the trash?” Waste Management isn’t going anywhere, now they’re just paid by the HOA. Sanitation workers could charge directly to the consumer if they wanted instead of striking the local municipality.

              “What about the people who can’t work or take care of themselves?” Simply, people will actually take care of the less fortunate in their community since government doesn’t exist to “solve” the problem. Not to mention, charitable organizations just got a huge boost in income now that everyone has more money.

“But who is go…” How about we solve the problems together as a healthy society on a small scale and repeat throughout the country. We can still protect ourselves, feed ourselves, and flourish independent of an authoritarian body. We can learn from other communities and create utopia in our own neighborhoods without paying idiots in Washington to perpetuate and exacerbate our problems for their own financial benefit. The world can be safe, sustainable, and prosperous. We just have to do it ourselves.

Previous
Previous

The seeds of Division

Next
Next

What Happened to Muh Culture?