From whence come the mighty engines of war? From whence are vast armies raised? How are those armies fed and clothed? The short answer that General Sherman knew so well – is that these things arise from the civilian population, hence his sack of Atlanta. A thinking man might ponder why there was no extended guerilla war after the fall of the South, or after WWII? The reason is simple; Johnny Rebel and his kinfolks could no longer wage war. Their people were totally demoralized, their industry and their farms destroyed, and army increasingly ill equipped and poorly manned. Likewise for the Germans, the Italians, and the Japanese. The civilian populations of those nations were forced to see war’s hard face up close and personal and before long they were no longer interested in war. They were done with war, used up and burned out. I submit, gentle reader, that this country will never again win at war so long as we carve out areas of safety for our enemy, when we fear ‘world opinion’ and fail to take war directly to the civilian population.
Following the US Civil War a new profession came into being, that of the professional politician. I define a professional politician as one who is elected to the same office for more than two terms. Makes no difference whether the elected are town marshals or high sheriffs, mayors or judges, representatives or senators. Once a person runs for the same office more than two times, that person’s interests become focused more upon being re-elected in succeeding terms than in working sincerely for the people. That person has become a ‘professional politician.’ The problem with this exalted class is that having achieved a place at the trough of governmental largess, they will tell any lie, vote any concession, and subvert their office – all in the attempt to be re-elected and remain well fed at that easy trough of the public weal.
Government exists because of taxation. The more tax revenue, the more government. Governments create laws and as governments become wealthier they promulgate more laws. As laws proliferate, our freedom decreases. Controlling taxation is the key to reducing governmental meddling with our private lives. Do you realize, that there is no longer any private property in the United States of America? I own my house, you respond indignantly. Do you really? If you have a mortgage you do not ‘own’ your house. You rent it from the mortgage holder. If you have real estate anywhere in the US it falls within a taxation district. If you think you own that house and are free from the nose of a banker hanging over your fence, try not paying your property taxes and see how long you ‘own’ that house. You in fact, only lease that house from a taxation district. And you must pay and pay and pay over and over again for the privilege of maintaining that lease. This is but one way local government grows fat. A really fair system of property taxation would see a tax levy only when the property changes hands. The concept of repeatedly taxing the same item of property should be really abhorrent to each property owner. So how otherwise could we pay for the high Sheriff and his deputies, the judge and his court? The same way in that I propose property to be taxed. By sales taxes on ‘new items’ not used items, and not repetitively on the same item held by the same ‘owner.’ Think this might shrink local and municipal government?
So what about the federal government? There is a portion of the Internal Revenue ‘Service’ that has as it’s mission, ‘to borrow the money the government needs to operate.’ If that is not a clarion call to wake up, you must be dead. Our federal government is bankrupt. It can only pay interest on the loans that enable its operation by the clever creation of fiat money that is backed by the supposed ‘full faith and credit of the US Government,’ whatever that is. Remember ‘quantitative easing?’ A big term that means that the government is going to print more money that it can back with capital or commodity. What a neat invention to pay interest on the debt. What a neat invention to make the dollar in your pocket worth less. Any idea what a pre-1964 quarter is worth for its silver content? Several dollars I respond. This folks is the real cost of inflation. It erodes your savings to the point of making savings other than in the form of a commodity foolish. This country really needs a balanced budget amendment and it needs it right now. You and I cannot operate our lives or our businesses by repetitively making less than we spend. Think you our government an exception? There will come a day of reckoning I promise, and with that day, will also come great crying and gnashing of teeth.