A Pacifier for Pacifists
Apr 24, 2017 12:31:55 GMT -8
Origanalist, The Rebel Poet, and 1 more like this
Post by acptulsa on Apr 24, 2017 12:31:55 GMT -8
www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1947/text
The Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act is being considered by the House.
This bill allows taxpayers to opt out of supporting the military. People who check the box will have their taxes go into a special fund, and the military won't tap that fund.
Do these peaceniks get a peace dividend? No. They get overtaxed at the same wartime rate as everyone else. This in no way deprives the federal government of revenue, thus discouraging it from military adventurism.
People who opt to have their taxes put in this fund presumably get their electronic money earmarked, so the electrons which originate from them go to other things. Some of these things, like even the Department of the Interior, might be partially militarized, and have their own SWAT teams and stocks of ammo. But their electronic money won't go to the military.
Of course, for every person who has his electrons earmarked for more peaceful purposes, another taxpayer winds up with all his money earmarked for imperialism. And if enough people opt in, the government can just say the money it borrows is for war, and the real revenue is what's getting used for other things.
This is a pacifier. A virtual pacifier. This is the bowl in which Pontius Pilate can wash his hands, and let the gaggle of crazy people who ostensibly answer to him, do as they will. It accomplishes exactly nothing. It changes no behavior, except perhaps to allow Americans to stop fighting against the war machine because they can tell themselves their electrons are kept separate from the blood-soaked electrons in the revenue stream.
It's a virtual pacifier for peaceniks. But no virtual pacifier ever kept a real baby from crying.
The Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act is being considered by the House.
This bill allows taxpayers to opt out of supporting the military. People who check the box will have their taxes go into a special fund, and the military won't tap that fund.
Do these peaceniks get a peace dividend? No. They get overtaxed at the same wartime rate as everyone else. This in no way deprives the federal government of revenue, thus discouraging it from military adventurism.
People who opt to have their taxes put in this fund presumably get their electronic money earmarked, so the electrons which originate from them go to other things. Some of these things, like even the Department of the Interior, might be partially militarized, and have their own SWAT teams and stocks of ammo. But their electronic money won't go to the military.
Of course, for every person who has his electrons earmarked for more peaceful purposes, another taxpayer winds up with all his money earmarked for imperialism. And if enough people opt in, the government can just say the money it borrows is for war, and the real revenue is what's getting used for other things.
This is a pacifier. A virtual pacifier. This is the bowl in which Pontius Pilate can wash his hands, and let the gaggle of crazy people who ostensibly answer to him, do as they will. It accomplishes exactly nothing. It changes no behavior, except perhaps to allow Americans to stop fighting against the war machine because they can tell themselves their electrons are kept separate from the blood-soaked electrons in the revenue stream.
It's a virtual pacifier for peaceniks. But no virtual pacifier ever kept a real baby from crying.
