Ebeling: Abolish the Income Tax

Richard Ebeling emails:

Dear Bob,

I participated in the April 21, 2016 “Libertarian Angle,” webinar sponsored by the Future of Freedom Foundation, with the Foundation’s president, Jacob G. Hornberger, on the topic: “Abolishing the Income Tax.”

Last week was income tax filing day, and tens of millions of Americans sent in their tax returns either before or on April 15th. What is lost in this mad dash to avoid hitting the deadline is that case for abolishing the income tax.

For its first 125 years, United States operated without such a direct taxation. But following 1913 with the 16th amendment to the Constitution, the door was opened to the direct taking of the income earned by the citizenry and a massive source of revenue to feed the insatiable appetite of politicians, bureaucrats and special interest groups who live off other people’s money.

Under the presumption that anyone of us may be hiding a dollar of income that the government claims the authority to tax, the privacy of everyone of us is denied, with the IRS ready and willing to look into every corner of our personal and financial affairs.

It also serves as an engine of ideologically driven redistribution of wealth to serve the goals of those who claim to know who has “too much” and who has “too little,” with the government the conduit of taking from Peter to give to Paul. As a result, it fosters envy, resentment, corruption, privilege and power lusting.

It is therefore time to seriously consider abolition of the income tax so the Leviathan State can no longer have a fiscal “easy street” to fund its hunger for the peaceful production of those in the private sector.

The webinar runs for about 35 minutes.

Best,
Richard