Today’s Taxes are a Robbery

 

By Gilberte Côté-Mercier

The tax collected today to pay for the construction of a road deprives me of bread. It steals my bread. This tax is a robbery. The taxes that now put me on rations in the midst of plenty do not reflect reality. They rob me of the private goods that I would otherwise obtain with the money I must now use to pay taxes.

Today’s taxes are a robbery. Today’s taxes must be abolished. You have heard the "White Berets" repeat these two sentences time and time again. You might believe that they are nothing more than slogans used to strike your imagination!

A businessman who stopped by the "Michael" Office, told us upon leaving: "I am very pleased with my visit here. I learnt something that I did not know, that today’s taxes truly are a robbery, that they must be done away with and that they can be done away with. I thought these expressions were slogans. But I can now see that they are true and based on solid arguments."

A student from the University of Ottawa, after attending one of our meetings, told us that he was delighted to finally understand how public works could be financed without taxes under a provincial credit system, and how the withdrawal and issuing of money would take place under a Social Credit financial system.

Today’s taxes are a robbery. We will repeat this with conviction and obstinacy until they are abolished. For they are the ruin of our families and of society.

The income tax, with its intolerable reports, is a nightmare for all. The property tax and school taxes that constantly increase, chase families out of their homes, they snatch farms and enterprises from the hands of those who built them; the school taxes of the smaller towns had already chased our founders’ heirs from the countryside to the cities.

The federal tax on goods and services impose bookkeeping, reports and inquiries on our businessmen. The Pension Plan, another tax disguised under a false name, adds to the already intolerable burden of taxation. And this legalized robbery keeps increasing. It is a robbery that is accomplished by the Law — by the Government — who is supposed to be, above and foremost, the protector of the people against all invaders, against robbers and such.

All of these taxes must be done away with, without delay. None of the Government’s clever scheming will be of any use as long as the present tax system is not abolished. Our governments only act to protect the robbers. They are the robbers’ representatives and their supporters.

Questions and answers

 

Todays taxes are a robbery. In order to understand this, let us proceed by questions and answers.

Q. — What are taxes for?

A. — To pay for public services, roads, firemen, etc.

Q. — What are roads built with?

A. — With materials such as sand, concrete, etc., and with labor.

Q. — What do the men who build the road live on?

A. — On material goods, such as bread, housing, etc.

Q. — What is required to produce these material goods?

A. — Other material goods and labor are required. There are public services, like roads, that require material goods and labor. And there are private services, like bread, that require material goods and labor. Public and private services: two sectors, the public and private sectors. These two sectors require material goods and labor.

The population possesses money, purchasing power, to pay for the services of both sectors, public and private, the road and the daily bread.

Q. — And what are taxes for?

A. — They are the part of the population's money that is removed from the private sector to be passed on to the public sector, a part that is subtracted from the daily bread to be passed on to the road. The government wants me to do without bread in order to pay for the road.

Q. — But is it necessary for me to do without bread in order to pay for the road?

A. — Not at all. There will be just as much bread for sale if we build a road, during its construction and after its construction. There will be just as much bread for sale. Therefore, there is no reason why I should do without bread since the baker will not decrease the amount of bread he makes. If it were the baker who had to build the road, I would lose my baker and my bread. But no, the baker continues to bake bread. So why should I do without bread? The tax to pay for the road deprives me of bread. This tax is a robbery. It steals my bread.

As long as the rate at which private production takes place is maintained, the government must not remove a single penny from my pocket to pay for production made by the public sector. I must be allowed to keep all of my purchasing power to buy private goods and services, as long as the rate of production of private services is not lowered. And the construction of the road does not lower it. On the contrary, the construction of the road is good for business, and it causes an increase in the production of the private sector.

If the baker were to stop baking bread because a road is being built, then a tax could be levied to take away my purchasing power for bread and use it to pay for the road. But today's taxes, which deprive me in the midst of plenty, do not reflect reality. They are illegal. They are a robbery. They rob me of the private goods that I would otherwise obtain with the money I must now use to pay taxes.

 

New money

 

Q. — But, how do you want the government to pay for its road?

A. — It must pay for its road with new money, created by a Credit Office, at the time the road is created. The engineers and workers build the road. The financiers must create the credit, the money to pay for the road. They must create as much money as required. Brand new money, since it is a new road. Money taken from nowhere, neither from the taxpayers' pockets nor from elsewhere.

Money created solely for the road: New money for new production. New money for a new road. As you can see, the road will not be paid for by taxes, but with new credit, since credit is money.

Q. — But if the Credit Office keeps creating new money for all public services, will there not be a lot of new money? Will this not cause inflation?

A. — The Credit Office must finance the production that is being made, and must retire the money used for consumption. This National Credit Office keeps the national accounts. It keeps count of production. It keeps count of consumption, i.e. the expenditure of material goods, labour, and the wear of the equipment. The Credit Office creates the money needed during production and destroys the money after it has been used for consumption. It creates money as production is made, and destroys it as production is consumed. In this manner, there is a constant equilibrium between prices to be paid and purchasing power.

Through this equilibrium, individuals are provided with all the money needed to pay for all services, private and public.

Q. — Do you mean to say that the Credit Office must also create the money for private production?

A. — Most certainly. The Credit Office must create the money for all production, private and public. The money created for private production would be distributed to individuals through three channels: Interest-free money lent to private enterprises; the discount on prices, given to buyers; and the dividend to all citizens. The money created for public produc­tion would be handed to the governments for public services. This is how taxes can be done away with. The greater part of taxes would simply disappear, the part that is presently used to pay the interest on public loans and to repay the borrowed capital. The national debt would no longer exist, and along with it, the servicing of the debt. Taxes would be lowered accordingly.

Q. — Do you mean to say there would still be taxes to pay?

A. — Services like garbage collection and firemen would still be paid for by the taxpayers. But the Credit Office must distribute to the individuals all the required money to pay for all public and private services. Services must be paid for with money. Money is an accounting system. Accounting must not fail in front of services being offered. There are firemen, men who are ready to put out fires. Firemen represent true wealth, real wealth. The Credit Office must include in its accounting this real wealth represented by our firemen. And the Credit Office must make sure that the population has the required money to pay the firemen. The same would apply to the private sector. There ought to be as much butter for sale as the population can consume. Butter is the true wealth, the real wealth. The financial wealth, the money-wealth, is only a form of accounting. The National Credit Office must make sure that the individuals do not lack money to pay for butter.

The part played by the Credit Office is to supply money to the country, just as the farmers' part is to supply food to the country. If the farmers do not need a lot of persuading to do their part, why should the Credit Office hesitate to do its share?

Today, the Credit Office is not a national office but an office run by private individuals. Banks exist for the profit of the bankers. A true Credit Office, one well kept, would exist for the whole population. It would be a national or a provincial Credit Office: A Quebec Credit Office, an Ontario Credit Office, etc.

Q. — So, we need a National or a Provincial Credit Office!

A. — Absolutely. Without a National Credit Office, anarchy rules the money system, our family budgets and the governments' budgets. Taxes are a robbery. The whole financial system is a robbery from top to bottom. This is explained in detail in the "Michael" Journal. Other publications are also available that explain further the wonderful technique of Social Credit; others still that condemn the scandalous swindle that is now being carried out by the present financial system and through taxation.

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