Internet sales tax: you’re nothing but a milk cow

Yesterday, I told you how politicians have – surprise – officially run out of ideas when they start using grade school tactics against their opponents. That includes against people like me who tell you that you have options outside of their little web.

They do this because, despite all the bluster to the contrary, all their insistence on “raising up humanity” and “fighting for the middle class” while making the evil rich “pay their fair share”, you are but one thing to your government.

A milk cow.

I’ve been watching the US internet sales tax bill over the past few days. It’s quite an astonishing thing. If you were an alien looking down from space, you’d think the United States was actively trying to kick out productive people.

As always, Big Government in the Land of the Free has a great spin for their proposal. A sales tax on all internet purchases will “level the playing field”. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

The concept of “fairness” is one of a tyrannical government’s favorite plays from the playbook. After all, what could be wrong with fairness? The sleeping sheep love such a concept. After years of government telling them they’re part of an oppressed class, it’s nice to have some fairness for once.

Government makes your teenage self look like an amateur when it comes to constantly crying “No fair!”

Of course, Big Government is all about smoke and mirrors and not about actually solving problems. At a time when the Land of the Free and most states are flat broke, you’d think they would want a way to encourage more commerce.

For shortsighted advocates of “fairness”, getting a piece of the pie from internet sales tax is all they need. They don’t realize, nor do they care, that small businesses unable to keep up with nearly 10,000 state and local taxing agencies will start going under, unable to keep up with the burden. Or that such a move will cause less competition, higher prices, and less choice for consumers. Consumers will simply refrain from spending as much.

It sounds like a great plan when the US economy is slowing again. (As if it was ever zooming forward in recent years.)

And for an Obama administration that’s all about the little guy, even going so far to blame their opponents for taking away a family of four’s Friday pizza night by restoring payroll tax rates, the effects of this new tax are crushing. Every soccer mom selling trinkets on Ebay for some extra household cash will get caught up in this thing.

But again, you’re nothing but a milk cow to the government. The more they can squeeze from you, the better. Even Republicans are jumping on the bandwagon of this new law. So much for their fight for lower taxes.

Now, Obama wants you to know he has a good plan for this extra money. He wants states to have extra funds for police, firefighters, and other social services. Good thing, since I’ve been seeing a lot of houses burning to the ground unattended lately. If all the rhetoric wasn’t so predictable, it would be laughable.

Interestingly enough, the government’s share of the pie has been rather consistent since large-scale taxation has taken hold in the US. Their take of total GDP has remained slightly over 1 out of every 6 dollars – or about 17%. Look back at historical tax rates going from 28% to 90% over the last 75 years and it’s a wonder how that can happen.

Unless you understand that government, in their aspiration to rob you of as much of your money as possible, can’t really change it’s slice of the pie. But they can shrink the pie by restraining commerce through higher taxes and less money in consumers’ pockets.

Of course, when that happens, it’s always someone else’s fault. Evil capitalists are taking the pepperoni pizza right out of that family’s mouth.

You would think that after income taxes, capital gains taxes, fuel taxes, food taxes, sales taxes, unemployment taxes, property taxes, tolls, fines, penalties, and hundreds of other ways the government reaches into your pocket, someone could be honest about how their endless pickpocketing is destroying our economy.

Ah, naivety.

This problem isn’t limited to the United States. Today, Tanzania is bragging about an increase in tax collection thanks to mandatory new devices every retailer must use. The black boxes track sales and force companies to pay up. Kenya has mandated similar devices for several years now.

But if the Land of the Free is “the best place on earth” as so many will tell you, you’d think it would be better than all that.

Not be a long shot.

If you’re an entrepreneur, your days in the US are numbered. I’ve been saying that for some time. Eventually, Big Government will run you out of operation and make it so impossible you’ll throw your hands up in the air. For some, that day has already come and gone. They’ve moved on to greener pastures.

Rather than keeping your business in the US as a revenue agent of the government, there are plenty of options for starting an overseas business. So many countries, from Panama to Chile to the Philippines and countless other places stand ready to welcome you with open arms. They know where their bread is buttered and they’re working to improve, rather than tear down, their support system for businesses.

The US government won’t like one of their better milk cows leaving the pasture, but as Prisoner Number Six said: “I’m not a number; I am a free man”.