submitted by jwithrow.
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Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Transitioning from Coercion to Voluntary Association
April 27, 2016
Hot Springs, VA
“The only highwayman I ever met was the state itself. When I have refused to pay the tax which is demanded for that protection which I did not want, itself has robbed me. When I have asserted the freedom it declared, it has imprisoned me.” – Henry David Thoreau
The S&P closed out Tuesday at $2,091. Gold closed at $1,244 per ounce. Crude Oil closed at $44.02 per barrel, and the 10-year Treasury rate closed at 1.93%. Bitcoin is trading around $455 per BTC today.
Dear Journal,
Last week we gazed into our crystal ball and discussed the future of commerce. As part of that discussion, we suggested that centralized governments have been skimming 50% of all production via taxation for quite some time now, and we suggested that the global economy would boom if producers were permitted to keep the monetary fruits of their labor.
I should clarify this a bit more by saying the vast majority of those taxes go towards financing corruption, cronyism, special interests, bureaucracy, militarism, dependency programs, and waste. In other words, they are used to destroy wealth and destabilize civilized society. A very small portion of the taxes you pay goes towards providing core civil services.
Further, the entire system of centralized government is underwritten by coercion and violence. Here’s what I mean by this: Continue reading “Transitioning from Coercion to Voluntary Association”