Consider a scenario in which a newly-founded town has established itself as a prosperous, efficient member of a state, in which the citizens of this town are forced to pay more than their share of taxes. Now imagine that this town receives only 10 percent of the taxes it pays back because the state considers it too young to handle money on its own. What right does this state have to steal this town’s hard-earned money?
The answer is, “by no right.” While this scenario might seem fictitious and beyond the realm of possibility, the citizens of Killington, Vt., are asking themselves the same questions. For a population of 1,000, they pay $10 million to the state in taxes every year and see only $1 million of it in state aid, according to USA Today.
“We have no justice, no representation,” said City Manager David Lewis.
“We’re being used as a cash cow to support others.”
Lewis has the correct grasp of what taxation amounts to – the seizure of one’s property so that it may go to support another. The Fifth Amendment guarantees that no American will “be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” This speaks of justice, which is giving a person that which he has earned. Income taxes serve to take away what someone has earned and given to someone who hasn’t earned it.
Some may argue that the seemingly innocent concept of wage withholding – a euphemism for theft – for things such as social security, do get returned to you. However, this should be an insult to everyone, directly implying that you are not intelligent enough to save for your own retirement, and the money that the government withholds from you is being taken until you reach their subjectively-chosen age.
In the meantime, you are deprived of the opportunity to invest the money you might save and lose out any potential earnings on it. While it is true that someone could squander their retirement savings, this is no one’s fault but their own. To assume all American workers are like that is to presume we are all irresponsible with our money during the entire duration of our working lives.
For years, Americans have been content to hand over their money to those who have no right to it, but the injustice of the situation should not be ignored anymore. The citizens of Killington are tired of all the money taken by force each year and will vote this March to secede from Vermont to become part of New Hampshire. They want to live in a place without state income or sales tax, where they keep the money they earn.
The entirety of America was supposed to be that place. When the Founding Fathers could no longer stand having their money stolen from them and used for another’s sole benefit, they created a place where justice existed in courtrooms and checkbooks.
The idea of eliminating taxes that have stood for decades may sound radical. Sweeping change is radical, but that doesn’t make it wrong. What is wrong is enduring injustice, in accepting less than the free country our ancestors fought and died for. New Hampshire, the state Killington wishes to join, has the state motto of “Live free or die.” The choice of death over slavery a is choice the early Americans made in two of our wars, enslaved to other men in different forms of the same evil. In accepting any tax or code that allows the state to seize what we’ve earned to give it to those who haven’t earned it, we violate justice and surrender freedom. If we call ourselves the heirs to the country the founders created, we must recognize evil for what it is, regardless of the excuse it is committed in, and how difficult it would be to renounce it. Americans must look to Killington and stand with them against unjust taxation and reaffirm our right to our own lives, freedom and property.