International Man: Tax Day just passed on April 15th. What does it say about a society when productive people must spend part of every spring calculating how much tribute they owe the State?
Doug Casey: It’s said that nothing is certain except death and taxes. But let’s reserve a conversation about the inevitability of death for another day.
Taxes are not only unnecessary for running a civil society, but evil (Click here for a free copy of Market for Liberty). Nobody discusses the moral dimensions of taxation. People only talk about vacuous technical details. Are taxes too high or too low? Should the rich be taxed more? How should taxes be spent? People accept the institution of the State, with its coercion, taxes, and inflated currency, as part of the cosmic firmament. What passes for a philosophical discussion is whether you should support the equally loathsome Democrats or Republicans.
The “powers that be” actually want to destroy the middle class. That’s not something they’d say, but the elite would prefer a society with a small number of themselves supported by a sufficient number of proles but without a troublesome middle class. They don’t like having to rub shoulders with masses of hoi polloi when they visit St Mark’s Square in Venice or Machu Picchu in Peru. They want just enough service personnel around to make it an enjoyable experience. The elite see the middle class as an enemy and a risk to their high status. They agree with Lenin, who said the middle class should be ground between the millstones of taxes and inflation.
Lenin understood that taxes made it hard for the proletariat to accumulate capital. And since their savings are in fiat currency, inflation—a more subtle form of taxation— destroys the value of whatever they manage to save.
The State, as Mao said, comes out of the barrel of a gun. Since it’s based on coercion, it’s only natural that some form of socialism, or at least fascism—state capitalism—is their preferred way to organize society. Currency inflation, income taxes, and debt have enabled governments to get completely out of control. The prognosis is not good.
International Man: There seems to be growing public discontent over taxes. Do you see that as healthy skepticism, or the early stages of people realizing the system itself is fundamentally predatory?
Doug Casey: I’d like to believe that the average person is starting to understand that the State itself is the problem. But that would be overly optimistic.
Americans have been indoctrinated over the years to think that government is benevolent, that it’s “we the people”. They get to vote every four years and have the illusion that they can change things. But really, it’s only a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. In the last election, the Uniparty offered Boobus Americanus the choice between Kamala Harris, simultaneously an ideological communist and a loopy dingbat. And Donald Trump, who is increasingly revealing himself as a megalomaniac and state capitalist in the tradition of Benito Mussolini.
Perhaps, assuming there’s an election in 2028, we’ll be offered a choice between Josef Stalin and Adolph Hitler.
International Man: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said Americans could get a “real wage increase” by adjusting their withholding. What are your thoughts on this? Does this tap into a growing public feeling that taxes have gotten so high that keeping more of your own paycheck now feels like relief?
Doug Casey: It was clever of the government to initiate withholding taxes in 1943, as a “temporary” wartime measure. Since then, the average American not only doesn’t have to write a check to the government on April 15th, but typically gets money back from the government. Scott Bessent proved himself intellectually dishonest and a liar, phrasing an adjustment in withholding as a wage increase. But it’s what should be expected from a member of the elite, a shill for the Uniparty.
It’s part of an overweening narrative of lies. The great COVID hysteria stole trillions of dollars from society. But many people learned to love and rely on the government more, as a friend and protector, when it gave them piddling relief checks. Some believe AI will create mass unemployment; there’s a movement to institute UBI or Universal Basic Income. That’s just great. It will relieve millions of any lingering notions of personal responsibility. The sheep will believe that State welfare is natural, necessary, and good.
International Man: How long can the middle class survive being squeezed between higher taxes and rising inflation before it’s simply bled out of existence?
Doug Casey: Government as an institution is genetically programmed to grow. Bureaucrats move up to the next pay grade by getting more people to supervise, which requires more taxes to enable all the wonderful things that the government does.
The prime directive of all living things, whether we’re talking about amoebas, individuals, corporations, or governments, is: Survive. Unfortunately, since governments don’t produce, the only way they can survive (barring conquering and looting a foreign country) is to tax, borrow, and inflate their fiat currencies.
The middle class—not the proletariat or the elite—bears the burden. The State destroying the middle class, the most productive part of society, is like the parasite destroying its host.
International Man: Why do so many Americans still tolerate crushing taxes when the government’s real talent seems to be wasting capital and punishing productivity?
Doug Casey: Most Americans have betrayed the idea of America.
Americans have been thoroughly indoctrinated with collectivist philosophy over many generations. They’ve come to conflate the State with society, thinking that they’re the same thing. In fact, the State is a dead hand on society and the enemy of the common man. Now, in the 21st century, most Americans are directly or indirectly reliant upon the government. If the government collapses under its unrepayable debt, and its currency loses all value, I doubt Americans will see the State as the problem. Perversely, they’ll see it as the only possible solution. They’ll clamor for a much stronger government offering more benefits, run by a Big Man who seems to have all the answers.
What can you do about this accelerating trend? April 15th has passed, and you’ve calculated how much you owe the State to tighten the noose around your neck. You should be both angry and ashamed. I certainly am. We do what we can, but it’s not much. We know that protesting too loudly or not paying enough will result in bankruptcy or incarceration.
I’ve offered palliatives in the past, and I expect to do so in the future. But increasing, or at least preserving, your personal wealth doesn’t solve the bigger problem—namely, that you’re being hunted by a giant predator, slowly eaten by a parasite. And that predator is getting hungrier, the parasite is becoming more virulent.
What’s the ultimate solution? Nothing, I fear, that’s either safe or legal.
Editor’s Note: Doug Casey has spent decades identifying major turning points before they hit the mainstream. Now, in this newly released presentation, a legendary investor and New York Times bestselling author exposes what he sees as the single biggest imminent economic threat—and what it could mean for your money. Click here to see it now.
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