
More and More of What We Do Depends on Government Permission - eplanit
https://reason.com/archives/2018/07/24/permitted-lives
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mikhailfranco
More from The Economist:

[https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/03/02/too-
much-...](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/03/02/too-much-federal-
regulation-has-piled-up-in-america)

And many previous HN discussions of Civil Asset Forfeiture (aka _highway
robbery_ ):

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17395675](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17395675)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17210880](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17210880)

It seems the CBP border force does not have to respect constitutional rights
and can detain you indefinitely without charge (e.g. for not providing a
password for your phone).

Of course, the IRS extorts from all Americans, wherever they are on the planet
(and beyond - warning to Elon: _renounce before blast-off_ ).

Add capture of the financial system by banks, corporations and elites; plus
militarization of law enforcement with surplus hardware returning from many
overseas interventions, and you have creeping boiling-the-frog fascism.

~~~
krageon
While you make some valid points, I think you're taking it a bit far with your
statement that your tax authority performs extortion. Taxes are a part of
citizenship. If you do not like that, that is your right. You cannot just stop
paying them just because you are selfish, that is not how social contracts
work. While on some levels you can call that extortion (it is after all backed
by violence to some degree), you'd have to be pretty willfully blind to not
recognize that most people wouldn't use the term like that. Unless you have a
point you are making that I'm missing?

~~~
mikhailfranco
> _Taxes are a part of citizenship._

Only for the US (and Eritrea). Your country should not own you and make extra-
territorial claims on your income or wealth due to an accident of birth.
Recently, the US has also made it harder and more expensive to renounce
citizenship. Even if you have paid all back-taxes owing (and paid a large
fee), it will not agree to release you from bondage, if it thinks your
motivation (thought crime) is to avoid excessive _future_ extra-territorial
taxes!

~~~
krageon
There are other countries where this is the case. There are of course varying
amounts of tax modulation, but you are generally expected to pay some amount
of money even if you work overseas. You are a part of keeping your country
running smoothly, and you pay taxes for that. If you want to be part of
another country running smoothly, you can do so (some have very low taxes but
are generally not super great to live in for varying reasons). I have no idea
about the process for relinquishing US citizenship.

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londons_explore
Need permission to fish. Need permission to play music. Don't need permission
to have a baby.

Seems like the biggest loophole ever in a democratic world.

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nictrix
Does anyone know if there has been a case between the IRS and a person in tax
debt trying to travel? Be great to see where that goes and how it's
challenged.

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mabynogy
The problem is the law not the government. We should remove laws instead of
creating new ones.

