In 2020 they tried to lock me down. Restricting my movement. Told me there was a curfew.
Closed local businesses and tried to stop me from putting food on the table.
I was unlawful and against the constitution. I carried a copy in my 4x4. Had to fight with cops for driving after the curfew. Refused to accept the fines and never paid anything.
I stopped paying the road tags, insurance and inspection tags on my motorcycles and 4x4s.
The muni has not seen any property tax $ for some time now. This is a long game as they don't foreclose on us in my town.
The digital ID and drivers license arrived. They said they didn't have the special plastic for physical cards I didn't renew. I drive with my expired plastic one. It appears I am not alone. Man is screaming that there are too many expired licensed people refusing to renew and we will be fined / taxed.
If money arrives in my bank account it is taken out immediately in cash at the ATM.
I don't have any plans or debt.
Just water lights and healthcare. All cheap and less than $100 a month.
I stopped shopping big box and Walmart. No Amazon online orders.
If I need work boots I can find them in the classified ads. We shop at the mom and pop bakery, butcher shop corner store. Support your community.
Barter has always existed in my community. It's a 3rd world custom. I now repair the butchers truck for pork chops and beef.
I trade car parts with the tow truck company for parts or a future lift. The farm ladies quad broke and I repaired it for homemade cheese. We love to barter.
Silver, gold, beans and bullets are in order. I'm not a prepper. I see the writing on the wall.
I often go to the municipal board meetings alone and voice my opinion on local issues.
They have been warned with physical consequences if they sell us out. Very illegal to make physical threats. The police are property owners like me and stand with me I gather.
As is it is now in the lawlessness stages. The police are in self preservation mode. They don't earn enough to get involved or investigate homicides unless forced to do so.
I think my town/country is 6 months ahead of the financial collapse. There is no $ in the streets. People get paid and it's gone in 24-48 hours. Everyone is broke but they don't seem to stress about it. In fact we laugh and joke about not having any $ or having to eat and forage for food like the grandparents once did.
To have a beer in the Cantina after work is a luxury for most.
I often buy a cheap liter of beer at the corner store and sit on the swing at the Cantina to enjoy it. The owner knows I can't afford the inflated price he is asking or I would.
Be careful what you wish for. I have little doubt that our monetary/financial/economic systems are gargantuan Ponzi schemes kept from collapsing through a variety of manipulations (and crossed fingers). But I have also come to believe that should these systems fail (as they must eventually since the infinite growth that they require cannot be sustained on a finite planet), for whatever reason, the negative consequences will be felt globally and mostly by the masses—not the ruling ‘elite’—mirroring previous such collapses. Prepare accordingly.
Thanks for mentioning my talk with Hrvoje. Glad you found the idea worthy of further exploration.
The PRIMARY takeaway I was hoping to leave people with is that:
Everything we have tried so far has not worked but we can still prevail in WWIII PROVIDED we get our shit together, learn to overcome our differences (race, religion and other nonsense that doesn't matter right now) and WORK TOGETHER to defeat the enemy.
If we do that, we can easily CRUSH them like cockroaches they are!
Unfortunately, time is quickly running out. Combine digital ID & AI and it's GAME OVER.
People need to understand that there IS actually a fate worse than death (much much worse):
My bank in their terms of service notified me that they could essentially "de-bank" me or anyone for any reason whatsoever. When I asked the teller one day if it was true she was taken aback and didn't seem to know anything about it, but later confirmed it was true.
So they have that power already but I think they are still vulnerable should enough people decide to fight a more subtle war in their everyday decisions. I think it would depend on whether the collective is motivated and aware enough to take a stand.
I see a lot of people that aren't ready, hypnotized by their devices and ideologies, but even that could suddenly change when the narrative fails, the trust is broken and survival is at stake.
If you can find a copy please read Unintended Consequences, a historical novel by John Ross. He was on a book tour in Ft. Worth Texas, at a gun show no less, and we talked when I bought my copy and really enjoyed the conversation. It is a long book but fast paced. If you could cut out the sexual portions, which are just a few, but based on his life it would be a much nicer read, especially young audiences. It will be hard to find but worth the trouble. Not sure of what the going price is though.
I spent my life up to 35 in Canada. I remember in the 90's when the government was bringing in the goods and services tax, known as the GST. A lot of people were against it, we were already taxed heavily. My thought was the people should just refuse to pay it. What could the government do? Lock everybody up? The people have the power but are too afraid to use it. Is it because we the people don't trust each other enough to follow through and stand together? I believe that plays a part.
You go to the checkout for something marked $9.95, and it rings up at $10.55.
How do you "refuse to pay" that?
The merchant *could* refuse to pay it, but they've collected it already at that point. Do we *really* want merchants to get a nice 6% bonus?
My "solution" is more drastic, and unpalatable for many.
I work very hard to not have enough income to pay taxes on. No, you can't live in a nice townhouse in the city with all the inconveniences of modern life and do that, but you *can* live rurally, growing your own food. (Contrary to intuition, food you buy *is* taxed if you pay income tax on the money you spend to buy food!)
I don't do this to be a cheapskate; I do this because I have fundamental issues with how tax money is spent. Fossil fuel subsidies. Arms and foreign wars. Corporate subsidies. I pay *none* of those.
I also live in an intentional community. We support each other, and do a lot of informal barter — gifting. It's not quid-pro-quo; we just all do things for each other. I fix things for people, and they feed me. I care for the neighbour's children, and they help me with things like cleaning the roof of my modest cabin. We all share our vehicles.
In the greater rural community, there is a lot of quid-pro-quo barter among neighbours going on.
This allows me to survive on simple interest. I used to have my savings in the stock market, but could no longer stomach such blatant support of capitalism.
I embrace the notion of "enough" instead of civilization's "MORE"!
Tax is stolen money, money funnelling to the cabal. Check out Topher Field he has videos on how we could live without tax but the Governements won't give it up unless we vote them out. It is easy money for them and keep adding more (in Australia at least and particularly the State of Victoria under our commo leaders).
I appreciate all your thoughts on this. Not everyone is able to just move out rural and do the same. I'm fortunate I live in a beautiful small town and have a business I enjoy. I support small local business and live as honest, integral life that I can. I think a lot of people just have no idea about how the system is setup to make us modern day slaves. Understanding how to get out of that takes time.
I love this approach, Jan. Good for you. We are trying to do something similar as well. Not easy but gratifying.
And yes, we remember GST quite well -- 15% in Nova Scotia back in the day. We discovered we ended up going backwards on two incomes (higher taxes, two cars required for each of us to work, double the insurance, etc.) so we reduced our footprint. Working hard, getting ahead and innovating is disincentivized, unfortunately... in Canada we saw the Pareto distribution on full display: 20% of the people did 80% of the work. Everyone else enjoyed some Government "benefit" and we got to pay for it. No thanks.
One point worth clarifying: we completely understand the inclination to blame "capitalism" for the society we seem to have inherited, but what we have is not capitalism. In fact, it is anything but a free market. We have (and it looks like we will continue to march toward) a Chinese-style blend of government and industry fascism with a healthy dose of authoritarianism and technocracy thrown in for good measure.
I'm reading my second memoir of living in China during Mao's leadership. Totally chilling how obedient and loving his citizens were of his oppressive and punishing regime. People had nothing, were starving, but constant propaganda and censorship had them believing he loved them and the country.
Now there's a fascinating idea – and I totally read you: not a plan or a proposal, but indeed a very clever insight. And I particularly like the notion of triggering an economic collapse (which is headed for us anyway) on something closer to "our" timeline, instead of "theirs". I mean if this is Jenga we're playing, why should they get all the fun of collapsing the beautiful tower, instead of us?!
15 years ago the Feds told me I owed them some money, a lot of money, from what they claimed was a flawed tax filing that went back a few years before that. I disagreed. An accountant had done the work. Unfortunately he had moved out of the country and so I didn’t have his help. And I didn’t have the money. They offered a payment plan, with interest. And tacked on all the interest and fines for the prior years. I told them to
pound sand. I made them an offer. They got nasty. I got nastier.
Full disclosure: I was a lawyer at the time but not actively practicing and knew nothing about tax law. But I did have some ‘advantage’ over someone without legal knowledge. And I learned real quick. And got some help from a friend. We developed a strategy. And contingencies. And more contingencies.
I took them to court. The court sent us to mediation. I refused the mediation settlement. Went back to court.
I probably can’t say exactly the final outcome or how we got there, and I did have to pay some money. Getting there was an emotional battle and very time consuming.
But the amount I paid was 5x less than the original amount, and I got 5 years to pay it. And there was no penalties. And no interest.
And what I ended up paying, in inflation adjusted terms, was less than what I originally offered. And the Judge knew it and he let the IRS boys know that the entire thing had been a massive waste of time.
It’s hard to fight the system. And there certainly is risk. But sometimes you just have to go at it.
In 2020 they tried to lock me down. Restricting my movement. Told me there was a curfew.
Closed local businesses and tried to stop me from putting food on the table.
I was unlawful and against the constitution. I carried a copy in my 4x4. Had to fight with cops for driving after the curfew. Refused to accept the fines and never paid anything.
I stopped paying the road tags, insurance and inspection tags on my motorcycles and 4x4s.
The muni has not seen any property tax $ for some time now. This is a long game as they don't foreclose on us in my town.
The digital ID and drivers license arrived. They said they didn't have the special plastic for physical cards I didn't renew. I drive with my expired plastic one. It appears I am not alone. Man is screaming that there are too many expired licensed people refusing to renew and we will be fined / taxed.
If money arrives in my bank account it is taken out immediately in cash at the ATM.
I don't have any plans or debt.
Just water lights and healthcare. All cheap and less than $100 a month.
I stopped shopping big box and Walmart. No Amazon online orders.
If I need work boots I can find them in the classified ads. We shop at the mom and pop bakery, butcher shop corner store. Support your community.
Barter has always existed in my community. It's a 3rd world custom. I now repair the butchers truck for pork chops and beef.
I trade car parts with the tow truck company for parts or a future lift. The farm ladies quad broke and I repaired it for homemade cheese. We love to barter.
Silver, gold, beans and bullets are in order. I'm not a prepper. I see the writing on the wall.
I often go to the municipal board meetings alone and voice my opinion on local issues.
They have been warned with physical consequences if they sell us out. Very illegal to make physical threats. The police are property owners like me and stand with me I gather.
As is it is now in the lawlessness stages. The police are in self preservation mode. They don't earn enough to get involved or investigate homicides unless forced to do so.
I think my town/country is 6 months ahead of the financial collapse. There is no $ in the streets. People get paid and it's gone in 24-48 hours. Everyone is broke but they don't seem to stress about it. In fact we laugh and joke about not having any $ or having to eat and forage for food like the grandparents once did.
To have a beer in the Cantina after work is a luxury for most.
I often buy a cheap liter of beer at the corner store and sit on the swing at the Cantina to enjoy it. The owner knows I can't afford the inflated price he is asking or I would.
Be careful what you wish for. I have little doubt that our monetary/financial/economic systems are gargantuan Ponzi schemes kept from collapsing through a variety of manipulations (and crossed fingers). But I have also come to believe that should these systems fail (as they must eventually since the infinite growth that they require cannot be sustained on a finite planet), for whatever reason, the negative consequences will be felt globally and mostly by the masses—not the ruling ‘elite’—mirroring previous such collapses. Prepare accordingly.
Thanks for mentioning my talk with Hrvoje. Glad you found the idea worthy of further exploration.
The PRIMARY takeaway I was hoping to leave people with is that:
Everything we have tried so far has not worked but we can still prevail in WWIII PROVIDED we get our shit together, learn to overcome our differences (race, religion and other nonsense that doesn't matter right now) and WORK TOGETHER to defeat the enemy.
If we do that, we can easily CRUSH them like cockroaches they are!
Unfortunately, time is quickly running out. Combine digital ID & AI and it's GAME OVER.
People need to understand that there IS actually a fate worse than death (much much worse):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYaXy5mmA8
My bank in their terms of service notified me that they could essentially "de-bank" me or anyone for any reason whatsoever. When I asked the teller one day if it was true she was taken aback and didn't seem to know anything about it, but later confirmed it was true.
So they have that power already but I think they are still vulnerable should enough people decide to fight a more subtle war in their everyday decisions. I think it would depend on whether the collective is motivated and aware enough to take a stand.
I see a lot of people that aren't ready, hypnotized by their devices and ideologies, but even that could suddenly change when the narrative fails, the trust is broken and survival is at stake.
If you can find a copy please read Unintended Consequences, a historical novel by John Ross. He was on a book tour in Ft. Worth Texas, at a gun show no less, and we talked when I bought my copy and really enjoyed the conversation. It is a long book but fast paced. If you could cut out the sexual portions, which are just a few, but based on his life it would be a much nicer read, especially young audiences. It will be hard to find but worth the trouble. Not sure of what the going price is though.
Cyrus
I spent my life up to 35 in Canada. I remember in the 90's when the government was bringing in the goods and services tax, known as the GST. A lot of people were against it, we were already taxed heavily. My thought was the people should just refuse to pay it. What could the government do? Lock everybody up? The people have the power but are too afraid to use it. Is it because we the people don't trust each other enough to follow through and stand together? I believe that plays a part.
The thing about GST is that it is automatic.
You go to the checkout for something marked $9.95, and it rings up at $10.55.
How do you "refuse to pay" that?
The merchant *could* refuse to pay it, but they've collected it already at that point. Do we *really* want merchants to get a nice 6% bonus?
My "solution" is more drastic, and unpalatable for many.
I work very hard to not have enough income to pay taxes on. No, you can't live in a nice townhouse in the city with all the inconveniences of modern life and do that, but you *can* live rurally, growing your own food. (Contrary to intuition, food you buy *is* taxed if you pay income tax on the money you spend to buy food!)
I don't do this to be a cheapskate; I do this because I have fundamental issues with how tax money is spent. Fossil fuel subsidies. Arms and foreign wars. Corporate subsidies. I pay *none* of those.
I also live in an intentional community. We support each other, and do a lot of informal barter — gifting. It's not quid-pro-quo; we just all do things for each other. I fix things for people, and they feed me. I care for the neighbour's children, and they help me with things like cleaning the roof of my modest cabin. We all share our vehicles.
In the greater rural community, there is a lot of quid-pro-quo barter among neighbours going on.
This allows me to survive on simple interest. I used to have my savings in the stock market, but could no longer stomach such blatant support of capitalism.
I embrace the notion of "enough" instead of civilization's "MORE"!
Tax is stolen money, money funnelling to the cabal. Check out Topher Field he has videos on how we could live without tax but the Governements won't give it up unless we vote them out. It is easy money for them and keep adding more (in Australia at least and particularly the State of Victoria under our commo leaders).
I appreciate all your thoughts on this. Not everyone is able to just move out rural and do the same. I'm fortunate I live in a beautiful small town and have a business I enjoy. I support small local business and live as honest, integral life that I can. I think a lot of people just have no idea about how the system is setup to make us modern day slaves. Understanding how to get out of that takes time.
I love this approach, Jan. Good for you. We are trying to do something similar as well. Not easy but gratifying.
And yes, we remember GST quite well -- 15% in Nova Scotia back in the day. We discovered we ended up going backwards on two incomes (higher taxes, two cars required for each of us to work, double the insurance, etc.) so we reduced our footprint. Working hard, getting ahead and innovating is disincentivized, unfortunately... in Canada we saw the Pareto distribution on full display: 20% of the people did 80% of the work. Everyone else enjoyed some Government "benefit" and we got to pay for it. No thanks.
One point worth clarifying: we completely understand the inclination to blame "capitalism" for the society we seem to have inherited, but what we have is not capitalism. In fact, it is anything but a free market. We have (and it looks like we will continue to march toward) a Chinese-style blend of government and industry fascism with a healthy dose of authoritarianism and technocracy thrown in for good measure.
I'm reading my second memoir of living in China during Mao's leadership. Totally chilling how obedient and loving his citizens were of his oppressive and punishing regime. People had nothing, were starving, but constant propaganda and censorship had them believing he loved them and the country.
The alternative was death. Not just for you if you did not obey but for your whole family. A bit like North Korea.
Now there's a fascinating idea – and I totally read you: not a plan or a proposal, but indeed a very clever insight. And I particularly like the notion of triggering an economic collapse (which is headed for us anyway) on something closer to "our" timeline, instead of "theirs". I mean if this is Jenga we're playing, why should they get all the fun of collapsing the beautiful tower, instead of us?!
15 years ago the Feds told me I owed them some money, a lot of money, from what they claimed was a flawed tax filing that went back a few years before that. I disagreed. An accountant had done the work. Unfortunately he had moved out of the country and so I didn’t have his help. And I didn’t have the money. They offered a payment plan, with interest. And tacked on all the interest and fines for the prior years. I told them to
pound sand. I made them an offer. They got nasty. I got nastier.
Full disclosure: I was a lawyer at the time but not actively practicing and knew nothing about tax law. But I did have some ‘advantage’ over someone without legal knowledge. And I learned real quick. And got some help from a friend. We developed a strategy. And contingencies. And more contingencies.
I took them to court. The court sent us to mediation. I refused the mediation settlement. Went back to court.
I probably can’t say exactly the final outcome or how we got there, and I did have to pay some money. Getting there was an emotional battle and very time consuming.
But the amount I paid was 5x less than the original amount, and I got 5 years to pay it. And there was no penalties. And no interest.
And what I ended up paying, in inflation adjusted terms, was less than what I originally offered. And the Judge knew it and he let the IRS boys know that the entire thing had been a massive waste of time.
It’s hard to fight the system. And there certainly is risk. But sometimes you just have to go at it.