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In the Arms of the State Imagine for a moment, however, what we should think about an older person who is imprisoned for a nonviolent federal offense; who spends a number of years behind bars; and whose life ends with his "debt to society" yet unpaid. Imagine for a moment that this individual committed a felony that many citizens in this nation view as a personal affront, an evil misdeed worthy of the harshest of penalties. Imagine for a moment that this particular crime involved the heinous act of... ...trying to keep his own money. Oooo! shudder On a recent edition of the television show, "20/20," intrepid ABC News reporter, Lynn Sherr, interviewed a woman who may suffer the same fate as her (now dead) fellow tax protester. Somehow, I don't believe Ms. Sherr will weep should that possibility become a reality. Lynn Meredith used to conduct seminars that instructed other citizens how to avoid paying any federal income taxes. She claimed — and claims — that such taxes are not legally mandatory. She says that, "There is no law that compels me to file a tax return." She also says that the money you receive from your employer is not income. You're simply trading your labor for his green. Beyond this, if you are (from Meredith's point of view) unlucky enough to have taxable income, you can shelter that wealth in a trust. Sadly for Ms. Meredith and some who practice what they preach, the Internal Revenue Service begs to differ. She and others were arrested on Tax Day last year for the temerity of their beliefs. According to the IRS, Meredith et al. are guilty not only of attempting to cheat Uncle Sam out of his due, these miscreants are also guilty of fraud. They behaved improperly when they sold their bogus plans to dimwitted and gullible citizens who then tried to finagle their way out of their legal and moral obligations to support the State. Ms. Sherr interviewed a (particularly supercilious) lawyer who smugly and self-righteously announced that "Meredith is a scam artist. Nothing more, nothing less." Not only that, she is "prostituting" the Constitution and "selling it for money." This paragon of legalistic virtue also says that taxes are voluntary "in the sense that we can choose to fill out a form and send the money in." Most people "choose" that path so they can "avoid the tax collector coming out to" their home. For her part, Meredith says that, "Unless the government is standing right next to me doing one-third to one-half of my labor, they don't have a right to one-third or one-half of my compensation." Oh! Foolish woman! Right? I don't know if Meredith really believes what she is saying. I don't know if what she says about the legality of the federal income tax is true. I don't know if Meredith is merely deluding herself or willfully defrauding her customers. I don't know from trusts, legal or otherwise. I don't know if the Sixteenth Amendment was ever legally ratified. I also don't care. The essential, the important issue in this story that "20/20" so breathlessly aired is not whether the income tax or the IRS or any of its paraphernalia or rules or practices are legal or constitutional. The modern State has no fundamental or deep-seated regard or respect for the law beyond how it can twist and cajole the legal system to obtain what it wants from its slaves-in-all-but-name subjects. Ninety-plus-percent of everything the American police state does violates the clear edicts and prohibitions of the United States Constitution. The State has no compunctions ignoring its own laws when convenient (just ask Florida Governor Jeb Bush regarding his druggie daughter) or passing contradictory and/or endless laws that ensure it can incarcerate anyone anytime it so desires. (See my essay, "You Are a Criminal.") Any State that can pass such abominations as the PATRIOT Act will find it child's play to enforce the means ("legal" or not) it relies upon to fund its adventures in imperialism, domestic and foreign. A prominent gadfly such as Lynn Meredith, however, who declares that we are all "in slavery" to the IRS cannot be permitted to so publicly and prominently spout the truth for long. After all, if everyone listened to her "lies," where would the State — and the white-collar thugs at the IRS who enforce the "law" — be? The State might be left without the wherewithal to finance its schemes to rule the world while rendering its own populace helpless and dependent. As bad or worse than her flouting of the State is Meredith's ostentatious flaunting of her wealth. How dare she tell the ABC reporter that, "You don't have to live in squalor." After all, Americans hate the rich...even though they all wish they could belong to that detested group of parasites. And Lynn Sherr does view Meredith as someone who is personally exploiting her. In the course of the story, Sherr took Meredith to task for shirking her civic duty. Sherr protested that she, Sherr, was being forced to pay more income tax because Meredith paid none. (Hmm. What does the IRS do: round up dossiers on each and every tax-avoiding wretch; calculate the total those deadbeats owe; divide that amount by the number of those who do pay income taxes; and tack that on to the tax each of the dutiful and praiseworthy citizens is forced — er, voluntarily — to pay on his own income? I wouldn't put it past 'em). One could hear the acidic distaste dripping from Sherr's voice as she repeatedly hammered home her accusations against this insolent ne'er-do-well. Objective reporting at its finest, indeed... Perhaps those who purchased Meredith's books and services and who adhered to her advice were dupes. Perhaps they are all guilty of tax evasion and will swell the ranks of those "greedy" souls in prison who dared to believe and hope they had a right to a brighter financial future, to a time when they could enjoy the better things in life free from a crushing tax burden that consumes a third to a half of what they earn via their hard work and creativity. Perhaps. They made their choices, though. Now — unfortunately — they have to live with the consequences. And it is unfortunate that anyone should be faced with public humiliation and be forced to risk personal and financial ruin for doing what is morally right and proper. The income tax — Constitutional or legal or not — is morally bankrupt and practically corrupt. No one — no one — has an ethical obligation to obey a perniciously immoral law. Whether the law concerns owning or carrying a weapon, using gold for money, seeking financial privacy or an anonymous lifestyle, deciding how to educate one's children, practicing discrimination, owning pets, smoking on private property, engaging in sex acts, or obtaining professional licensing, one is morally free to ignore any rights-violating law...but one must also be willing to accept the results of asserting one's moral autonomy, of being caught and prosecuted for the evil of thinking — and acting — for one's self. Forget the practical good that tax-evaders do — i.e., depriving the State of a small portion of the wealth it seeks with a zeal and determination far beyond that of the worst imaginable drug addict — in any contest between morality and legality (even such a [generally] valid principle as "the rule of law"), morality triumphs. The "Law" should be a means to an end, i.e., a peaceful, voluntary existence. It is not an end in and of itself. To anyone who might object that individuals should not "be allowed" to decide for themselves what laws are ethically valid and which are not, I say: there is no one else to decide. Only individuals exist. Committed collectivists like Lynn Sherr, the cheerful folks at the IRS, and the delightful public servants that infest Washington, D. C., forget that fact at their own peril. Sooner or later, reality will slap them down. After all, even a whipped dog will bite if it's cornered and beaten long enough. Woof, woof. Sherr, Lynn. "Just Saying No to Uncle Sam: Are Income Taxes a Matter of Choice?" 1-17-03. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_taxlady030117.html
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