Nobody Can Steal Like The Government Can

Back in the day, when I was Chief, we'd hire these young kids on the police department. Very often, and almost without exception, the first thing these kids would do is run out and buy a new truck. That is a rite of passage in Idaho.

This of course, was quite possibly the worst investment they could make. Insurance companies love young white males. They gouge the shit out of that segment of drivers and then adamantly defend their positions by stating that young male drivers are the most accident prone. I agree. But that doesn't give them a license to steal. Insurance companies could not get away with price gouging tactics if their statistics weren't pooled and lumped together. In other words if insurance was specifically assigned to individuals rather than groups- there is no way they could justify that thievery. And good drivers would not be paying for bad drivers. Of course they will never do this, having manipulated this categorical age and sex gouging for maximum profitability. Insurance companies may have perfected the art of business thievery- but they are mere pikers when compared to the real professionals. The creme de la creme is government.

In fact, what I am going to try and show here is that the government has stolen the lion's share of the discretionary income of Americans. When you steal the discretionary income of an entire population- people are forced to make hard choices. Since government steals from its people with the threat of prosecution and prison hanging over their heads- people will inherently pay tax because they have to. Government becomes the priority lien holder on all working class slaves. They will pay taxes until such point that they can buy nothing else or quit working all together. That is happening now.

So let's use the purchase of a car as our example of how government has obtained a license to steal. First let me put up a map of US gas taxes for simplicity's sake. http://www.newyorkgasprices.com/USA_Tax_Map.aspx

The process of building a car is complex. Somebody has to furnish the raw materials. Rubber, steel, aluminum, glass. All of those raw materials are subject to mining or export taxes. The workers furnishing the labor to find and extract raw materials are taxed. The companies profiting from turning raw materials into components are taxed. If the parts are imported- they are subject to special taxes. The workers assembling the car are taxed. The auto manufacturer is taxed. The transport used to get the car to the dealer is taxed and pays use and fuel tax. The auto dealer and its employees are taxed. They pay title and origination taxes and fees. The buyer shows up and pay anywhere from 5-10 percent sales tax. The buyer pays registration costs which are taxes. He stops to get gas and pays gas tax. In fact, in California, gas tax is 67 cents a gallon- or somewhere close to 20%! That is outrageous. If a driver travels 20,000 miles a year at 20 MPG, he will pay 670.00 dollars a year or about 3500 dollars in gas tax before the note is paid off in five years.

Of course if the car is bought and resold, the new buyer, pays tax. In theory, it would not be a stretch of the imagination for one car to generate sales tax of 3000- 6000 dollars depending on purchase price and residual values.

So in five years time, a white male California driver buying a 30k car pays nearly 3000 dollars in sales tax, 3500 in gas tax, registering a car in California will cost you 3000 bucks over 5 years. And then you could possibly pay 1500 a year in insurance. (I liken insurance to a tax for two reasons. It was made mandatory with the full effect of law by the state, and like taxes- insurance pays you nothing back if you do not make a claim. Like unemployment insurance.)

So disregarding all of the taxes paid to generate and deliver the car- the end user pays nearly 10,000 dollars in taxes for the first five years of car ownership. Another 7500 dollars in insurance costs. That amounts to a hidden 300 dollar a month car payment. So take a 400 dollar car payment and add 300 to it. A true cost of ownership on the order of 700 a month emerges. In Idaho, that would probably be 400 and maybe only 150 or about 550 a month. All of that for an asset that will lose nearly all of it's value in ten years.

Wow. 

The beauty of this government thievery is that it is almost completely hidden from view. The Bureau of Labor Statistics only reports on the price of vehicles. It does not index for taxes. In fact nobody really reports the true cost of anything with tax- which is an inescapable part of our lives. 

I've given you this illustration to point out just how much government steals from you. It's not just your income tax, or property tax, or the sin tax you pay for booze and smokes. They have essentially inflated the cost of everything you have whether that is a house, car, insurance- but they have also stolen all of our discretionary income as well. And they still can't pay their bills. Think about that, tax slaves.

And now they want to force place health insurance on everyone.

We have arrived at the end game. We simply cannot afford this government any longer. All that really remains to be seen is how long it takes us to implode. Trying to predict that is tricky. It will simply get worse and worse every year. There is no alternative or solution. I just hope we can manage the upcoming conflict. It will be interesting to see whether government has the money and the nerve to try and lock up a few million of us. They can't even afford the prisons they have now.

As a nation, most of us agree that we have to pay a reasonable tax for reasonable safety and preparedness provided by a government. Reasonable left the building decades ago. Outrageous has taken over. Desperate. Nobody can steal like the government. Nobody. Not even the mob.