It is commonly accepted that there are standards of right and wrong in the world. The Declaration of Independence refers to them as the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” To obey these laws is right and to disobey them is wrong. These standards apply to every individual of every nation. The laws that are obvious to most people include commands against murder, stealing, lying and adultery. Commands that aren’t so obvious because more people choose to disobey them include love God, don’t follow other God’s, set aside one day in seven to worship God and don’t take God’s name in vain or count it worthless.
While many would agree that these laws apply to every individual, confusion begins when we ask if these laws apply to governments. If they don’t apply to governments, then we must realize that the government can do no wrong. If all government actions are amoral it might be time to figure out how to use that for your advantage. You could then work together with a bunch of your friends and their friends until enough of you controlled the government so that you could steal from those who were too rich or silence those you didn’t like.
The illustration is obviously absurd and immediately points to the alternative view. The laws that apply to individuals do apply to governments. The problem comes when we decide how to apply this fact. We have tended to come up with a second level of morality that applies to governments. You know that it would be wrong to take money from your rich neighbor to pay for college. To get around this, the majority elect “representatives” to take money from their neighbors that they use to pay for college. Just because it’s the “will of the people” doesn’t make it right.
Suppose you and your friend call a meeting and invite your rich neighbor. At the meeting the majority (you and your friend) make a decision that you will take money from your rich neighbor and distribute it among yourselves. Does that make it ok now? It doesn’t matter if we say government is different because it’s a voluntary association. How does one go about getting out of volunteering or more importantly – being volunteered?
The problem is answered by admitting that their is an authority higher than government. If government was the final standard it could do whatever it wanted. An evil government would do evil and call it good. If government created the laws it would be the final decider of right and wrong. Government did not create the laws and therefore governments are not above the law. All governments and men are responsible to obey the law of God. It is the responsibility of the follower of Christ to speak out and call to repentance immoral governments and the people in them just as much as we are called to preach repentance to the individual on the street.
Inflation is a hidden and intentionally deceptive form of taxation. Governments love to be off the gold standard and use fiat currencies that allow them to inflate without controls (especially when all the other governments are also on fiat currencies).
Inflation of the money supply is what the Fed does. When the government needs more money it sells assets to the Fed (usually government securities). The Fed “invents” the money to pay for these. It doesn’t need to print new money because the transaction just increases the amount of money the government has in the bank (and it can use to pay people with).
Because of this new money in the system, all of your money is worth less – increased supply of money raises prices (that’s why housing prices have risen so high after cash was pushed into the housing market through easy loans).
You have now been taxed twice. The government takes a high percentage of your money out of your paycheck. It may give a little back on April 15. It has also taken more of your income by making what you have left worth less. This is a hidden, deceptive tax. The Fed does not protect from inflation, it causes it.
Thomas J. DiLorenzo has written an excellent article title, The Unconstitutional Tax on American Exports at LewRockwell.com. It is interesting to note that the Civil War was motivated by money. The North and the Federal Government were taxing imports which hurt exports in the South (if you cannot buy imports from foreigners because of price they won’t be able to buy your exports). It is my opinion that true free trade would solve a lot of the problems our nation has today. We will not accomplish anything good by forcing other countries to raise their standard of living or conform to our standard before we will import from them. When the government tries to stifle cheaper goods from other countries it is my guess that their real concern is lower tax revenues. If they can keep the prices high on foreign goods there will be more money staying in our country which will provide more tax revenues. They forget that if we get cheaper goods from overseas, that we then have more money to invest in our country or to buy more goods.
Also on the supposed negative impact of jobs going overseas. If a job can be performed cheaper overseas that is a good thing. It allows everyone to buy cheaper products and the economy to have more money to invest in more important things. When we fight to keep jobs that can be done cheaper elswhere or better by machines we are stifling innovation. Our country has been fueled by innovation consistently for the past 200 years because the government was not unnecessarly involved. Unless we keep it that way we will never see improvement.
I’ve been reading some interesting articles on President Bush and current federal spending. The philosophy being promoted by some is to cut taxes in such a way that will force the government to eventually cut spending and become smaller. The idea is to starve the beast. More information can be found at Insults Unpunished.
I’m not sure what I think about it all at the moment but the idea is definitely interesting. There is also Starve the Beast: Join the Global Tax Revolt at Amazon but it is out of print.
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