Comments | samvimes: "You're an idealistic and well meaning idiot"

samvimes

"You're an idealistic and well meaning idiot"

May 11, 2006 03:45

I am absolutely tickled pink by this comment by my brother.

I look forward to hearing his counter-arguments, even if I am too thick to understand them.

family, politics

Comments 2

pixxelpuss May 11 2006, 16:50:04 UTC

I understand your reasoning behind the tax thing (my dad was going for something similar when he resented a new gun control measure). I get that it is just as wrong to obey an immoral law as to disobey a moral one. And yes, probably far more of your tax money would go to things you disapprove of than would go to helpful social services. As an added bonus, if you end up in jail you'll end up costing the government more than you'd probably be paying them. All of that said, the unless your choice becomes part of a movement towards impeaching Bush, the best thing you can say that you're doing is taking yourself out of the equation. It's mostly only famous folk who can agitate from in prison. You also lose your right to vote while you're in prison (and in some states, I'm not sure about Washington, for awhile afterwards). Why not take steps to establish residency in a country who is actively criticizing US policy and whose actual policies you do agree with? Once you establish residency you don't have to pay US taxes, you can move back when ( ... )

samvimes May 11 2006, 17:38:30 UTC

unless your choice becomes part of a movement towards impeaching Bush

...defining "movement" as "more than one person", obviously. ;) I wonder how many people need to follow along before it qualifies as a movement?

It's mostly only famous folk who can agitate from in prison.

First, see moorlock's comment, that very few tax resisters end up in prison. Mostly what happens is nothing for a while, then attempts to extract the money against your will, via your employer. Threatening letters, certainly, because those are pretty easy to write and send. It takes a while before they get around to actually paying you a visit. By then, I expect it to be 2009, and as I said earlier, if Bush is still in office by that time, then our problems are so serious--as in, it should be obvious to everyone in that event that we no longer have representative government--that I'd happily go to jail to protest ( ... )