When the State Steals, the People Become Thieves
Friday we sailed around Capri and then across to the Bay of Salerno. Very few boats around, and nary a one of the luxury yachts so common in those waters. We went to a seaside restaurant, and were among a very few customers. The owner said it was the worst season he’d seen since the 1960s.
The spring weather has been unusually unpleasant, which no doubt accounts for at least part of the problem, but this lovely part of the world has long attracted lots of visitors regardless of the temperature. Most of the merchants I talked to blame the Treasury Police, whose numbers have increased as the tourists’ have dropped. The Guardia di Finanza have huge powers to snoop, and they have taken to boarding yachts and asking all manner of questions of those on board: Do you own this? If not, from whom did you rent it? How much are you paying? How are you paying? Which credit card did you use (remember, you cannot pay in cash for anything more than a thousand euros)? And so forth. So when I hear European leaders carry on about stimulating “growth,” I’m not very sympathetic. All over the continent, state organizations like the Guardia di Fiinanza are showing their citizens that the most important thing is tax collection, not freedom to create new wealth.
You hear stories every day that show how avid our governments are to get their hands on our money. I was talking to an American friend who married an Italian about 40 years ago, stayed married, got dual citizenship, and is now being asked by the Italian government to tell all about what she owns in the U.S., and by the American government to tell all about what she owns in Italy. We all know this is part of the scheme to get her money into the government coffers. Two coffers in this case.
It’s discouraging to watch the states’ appetite, both because it shows their contempt for us — an old thought for the Italians, but a new one for most Americans, I believe — and because it shows how little they understand economics and human nature. The normal human response to a state that enriches itself unfairly and mean-spiritedly, all the while pretending to be doing the opposite, is to try to outwit it or change the nature of the state. Our fall elections are all about changing it, and if that fails, we will see a sort of Italianization of America, complete with the creation of a black market for money, much as we’ve seen the creation of a black market for cigarettes. Here in Italy, those markets (and similar ones for prostitution and drugs) are largely operated by the famous triad of organized crime, the Sicilian Mafia, the Neapolitan Camorra, and the Calabrian N’Drangheta.
Italians are quite different from Americans, perhaps most of all in their pessimistic view of human nature and their rejection of “big ideas.” They’ve certainly had their share of big ideas and grand enterprises, from the Roman Empire to the Catholic Church and the Florentine Renaissance. Daily life here unfolds against the background of the monuments of those glorious achievements. But most Italians do not believe they are capable of new enterprises of such quality. Indeed, a conservative friend of mine once admitted that he assumes any rich person has gotten wealthy because he has acted immorally.
Machiavelli: “Man is more inclined to do evil than to do good.” But even Machiavelli believed that glory, even virtuous glory, is possible.
We Americans believe we are capable of anything, and we don’t have to enter evil to accomplish glorious ends. That’s what November 6th is all about.
Here and there, American faith creeps into Italian life. In the latest local elections, some maverick mayors were elected — from Parma and Verona to Palermo — who promise to pursue a more virtuous path. I hope they succeed, but recent history is not encouraging. The last effort along these lines — the Northern League — has been decimated after the discovery of financial corruption at the highest levels of the party, including the family of the longtime leader, Umberto Bossi.
Sound familiar? A firebrand promising to change the system turns out to be as corrupt as those he defeated, and uses the state to enrich his family and friends…and over time, the corruption defines the whole political system.
That is why we must keep fighting the state and demanding our own freedom. Otherwise the Feds will become the same sort of affliction as the Guardia di Finanza, snooping in places best left to us to manage…lest we, in turn, devote more and more of our energies to outwit them, thereby draining strength from our creative enterprises.
But then, crime can be very creative, can’t it? Stay tuned…
I didn’t know you were cruising around Europe, so I thought this was going to be about the latest rage in asset seizure programs here in rural communities in the states. Read about it this afternoon on AOL. When a guy gets arrested for drug pushing, and his family calls to inquire about posting bail for him, the cops lie and say the bail has to be paid in cash. When the relatives (typically his mom or siblings) show up with the cash, the contents of a bank account or the proceeeds from a sale conducted for this very purpose, the cops seize the cash, claiming that it must be drug money. After all it has drug residue on it (as do most dollar bills these days) and these people are related to a drug dealer, aren’t they? Since much of the time the bail is relatively small (several thousand dollars typically) and since these tend to be working people with few resources, the cops are obviously hoping that the individuals in question will just write the money off as lost, and let their relative rot in jail until the trial comes. If they do protest, and can document where every dollar came from, they get the money back, several months later…maybe.
Of course what you’re talking about is a larger-scale version of the same thing, with an international flair…
right. same words, different music.
A lot of small time weed dealers in America in the ’60s weren’t depraved maniacs, but reasonable people who simply said, I’m not paying for this war or paying these unfair taxes. Grasp at too much, and people willing to pay a reasonable share won’t pay anything.
Left: Republicans stole it first.
Right: Government’s not a business! (sure, neither is the Mafia)
Employee-owned corporations would solve the union problem. (and no govt unions)
Taxpayers should all own shares in USA, Inc. WE own this country.
Treasury bonds only available to US citizens- WE should get the interest payments (instead of benefit programs), not the Federal Reserve.
Third parties (lawyers, judges, prosecutors, adminstrators, officials, boards) need to face personal RISK, or the cost-free Looting Industries will continue exploding.
Direct taxpayer ownership would solve the problem of “Who watches the watchmen?”
Paid shares would eliminate the Left’s “the commons” argument.
Pardon the multiple posts, thanks.
This is the reason Sarah Palin was destroyed in 2008, she had a history of going after the corruption and for honest government. She would have been well positioned for 2012 election and the rest of the country would have had time to see who she was.
Can’t have that, can we?
John Stossel – When People Don’t Matter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuvtEXMG_Wk
Can’t use cash for anything more than a thousand Euros because that’s criminal/subversive… coming soon to your life here if left/liberals have their way.
The Most Dishonorable Huey P. Long, speaking of congress, once said
..and when you look back on the Lugars, Bennetts, Snowes and McConnells you pretty much understand why November might be the last relatively peaceful administrative and legislative change opportunity this county undergoes – for a couple of decades. If establishment Repubs don’t get it now, and some say they don’t, the bloody outcome will be on them even though the problems are caused by progressive socialists. ERepubs’ blindness and greed will make the difference this time. I’m praying they are smarter than they look, but I have my doubts.
It is a shame to watch America continue spiraling downward. Corrupt agencies from local police to DEA and ATF, DOJ, intelligence and military ; we have an entire fleet of F-22 that have never seen action and may never see action, but they sure look great on those air force commercials. Am sure soldiers coming back from war missing limbs and suffering take comfort in our wonderful flying paperweights.
Is it any wonder the taxpayer is fed up…we used to get value for our taxes; parks were free, those that needed help could actually get help at mental health clinics instead of wandering the streets, schools actually had supplies for students, the list goes on and on.
Its not a mystery Americans are leaving for greener pastures in Asia, South America, and other parts of the world, or trying to hide assets so they are not confiscated.
Meyer Lansky taught govt agencies how to use offshore banking system to move funds around the world. If you want to hide your assets just copy what your senator, congressman or retired DEA agent have in place.
This country was founded on the principle of property ownership. The far left would like to change that. If Obama gets re-elected this November it will open the flood gates. Then we will be like the workers in the old Soviet state, they will pretend to pay us and we will pretend to work. Oh, and cheap vodka or maybe marijuana and heroin for all.
No it was NOT.
It was founded on the principle that men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.
Property rights are one of MANY fundamental rights that flow from that principle.
And it IS a fundamental right, as fundamental as self-defense and free speech.
The Declaration of Independence: “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that aong these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, dertiving heir just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Sad to say, few people in public office hold these views today; certainly the most egregious disregard for them is evidenced by the present administration in Washington.
The property rights of all freeholders in all the English colonies was well established a long time before the Declaration of Independence. In fact the security of property rights was what distinguished the English colonies from the French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies. So yes, the basic foundation of the English colonies was property rights.
A small, but growing problem where I live near a big midwestern city: using the police, and our traffic laws as a means of revenue collection for the government. Red light cameras, speeding cameras, and even bizarre police stings of incredibly trivial traffic violations has become rather commonplace. Despite earnest public pronouncements of improving public “safety”, the truth is that many of these devices are sold as revenue collection devices, and nothing more.
The end result is the criminalization of everyone. I’m a very cautious driver, but in the past year, I’ve gotten two red light camera tickets in the mail, one for turning RIGHT on a red light, something I’ve been doing most of my life! And then, most recently, a police sting was handing out tickets to people driving around a “road closed” sign, on a road that wasn’t closed. And there’s all sorts of stings going on in construction zones, where the fines are sky high, and the restricted speed limits are enforced even when no one is working at these sites.
I used to be very forgiving towards police and their jobs, but no more. They’ve quite literally become petty thieves of the worst kind, and their powers and protections have gotten way, way, way out of line ever since the unfortunate events of 9/11. I no longer view them as heroic in their endeavors, but as an enemy to be thwarted.
Sad, doesn’t have to be this way, but when you make everyone a criminal, what do you expect?
Alexander the Great
The owner said it was the worst season he’d seen since the 1960s.
Sooner or later, a price is always exacted for the illusory fruits of socialism. Maggie observed that the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. And that seems to be true. Hell, the big book published by Karl, Das Kapital, which is the intellectual basis of socialism, is itself a fraud that used doctored macroeconomic numbers because his researches found that the income distribution trend line in England during the Industrial Revolution wasn’t all that bad for the working man.
Sure, socialism is a crime. Taking property from other people is inherently a crooked operation. But, to do it all you need is a good excuse and the barrel of a gun, and gubmint guns are everywhere and operated by professionals. Even that famous Commie Mao Zedong once noted that nearly all justice comes from the barrel of a gun. Especially economic justice.
Having already been reamed, we’re now being put on our knees for more of the same. One can only shudder when Lisa Jackson talks about environmental justice, and then issues thousands of Draconian federal regulations based on fake science.
Wow, Michael you’ve been making a huge carbon footprint with all your travel, destroying the environment and increasing child labour in the third world. Pharaoh Hussein will know how to deal with vermin like you in his Next Term (which will be, between Hitlery Qunton and Pharaoh himself, forever).
Italians are a curious people. They are always going on and on about their history but they seem the most reluctant to learn anything from it.
I recall reading about a bunch of Italians who, long ago, decided that they might make something of themselves. They eventually did. Apparently, they decided that they would band together and work hard and form a government that would support them in their endeavors to better themselves.
So, they built some roads and some giant water pipes and forms of law and government and civilization that – some say – provided the foundations for modern society.
Anyhoo, they eventually stopped caring. So they degenerated into a brutal police state run by corrupt officials that supported a bunch of deadbeats who in turn supported the government pimps. Meanwhile, the hardworking farmers got tired of doing all the work and paying all the bills and said the hell with it. Then some German tourists came in and burnt the place down.
That’s my understanding as an American – a country with no real history compared to Italy. But somehow, despite all their history, I feel the Italians haven’t learned a thing.
With millions on “disability” – millions more gaming the unemployment benefits – and millions more gaming medical payouts – and the banksters and politicos cashing each other in – I think we can teach the Italians a bit about corruption, ourselves, today, American style. Give me our cigar smoking short armed fatties trying to hold onto the whole pot versus their klepto bureaucrats and low rent tax evaders and then I’ll raise you two: an army of public sector employee union thugs sucking any cash out faster than it can be printed – by an out of control Fed that will implode the bond market by years end. Italy, sheesh, what’s a few treasury trolls on a sunny deck versus the cold, thin restored letter from the omnipresent IRS. The tyranny and corruption are here, thriving and will, from the sheer weight of popular idiocy that passes for wisdom in the US, bring about a financial catastrophe when the ‘smart’ money finally leaves the ponzi scheme to take out the shmucks in a cashier grab. I mean, you got the theme right, Mr. Ledeen – we ain’t seen nothing yet, but the election got nothing to do with it – after the blow up, Congress won’t have its free money any more and whoever wins any election will demand a recount. Call it The Last Election. I mean who runs after that will just have a death wish. Game over.
See ya in the FEMA camps on the eastern Sierra, gang. Don’t forget to bring your own currency.
With millions on “disability” – millions more gaming the unemployment benefits – and millions more gaming medical payouts – and the banksters and politicos cashing each other in – I think we can teach the Italians a bit about corruption, ourselves, today, American style. Give me our cigar smoking short armed fatties trying to hold onto the whole pot versus their klepto bureaucrats and low rent tax evaders and then I’ll raise you two: an army of public sector employee union thugs sucking any cash out faster than it can be printed – by an out of control Fed that will implode the bond market by years end. Italy, sheesh, what’s a few treasury trolls on a sunny deck versus the cold, thin registered letter from the omnipresent IRS. The tyranny and corruption are here, thriving and will, from the sheer weight of popular idiocy that passes for wisdom in the US, bring about a financial catastrophe when the ‘smart’ money finally leaves the ponzi scheme to take out the shmucks in a cashier grab. I mean, you got the theme right, Mr. Ledeen – we ain’t seen nothing yet, but the election got nothing to do with it – after the blow up, Congress won’t have its free money any more and whoever wins any election will demand a recount. Call it The Last Election. I mean who runs after that will just have a death wish. Game over.
See ya in the FEMA camps on the eastern Sierra, gang. Don’t forget to bring your own currency.
http://thecolepatrol.blogspot.com/2012/05/olives-vines-vices-bin-ledeen.html
Happy days.
The analogy that comes to mind for me is Ukraine.
I have a friend, the most free-spirited person I have ever encountered, who was working on taking down the stockpile of weaponry left behind by the old Soviet Union. While she was over there, she was told “Stop doing that, you’re making yourself conspicuous.” What she was doing was complying with a real safety rule that could have serious consequences.
She came to find out that, in Ukraine, when there is no supervision, compliance with the rules, ALL the rules, including the beneficial ones, is gone.
Ahh, but the people are thieves, that is why the govt confiscate from them, and share their loots with the 99-percenters.
“That is why we must keep fighting the state and demanding our own freedom.”
By electing Mitt Romney? By electing Lindsey Graham? By electing Paul Ryan?
Until “conservatives” start calling these big-government guys out and stop voting for them, the fight for freedom isn’t going anywhere.
There’s actually one man still running for President who is incorruptible. Despite a near media blackout on him, he’s won 8+ states so far and holds rally after rally with thousands and thousands of people at them. Too bad you can only see those rallies on Youtube.
Incorruptible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6mLdwr0pOs
Ron Paul is the bigggest faker of all.
You’re goign to make sure Obama is elected. After you’ve destroyed the country, it will be a bit late to be sorry.
I want the guy who takes the Constitution and his oath of office seriously to win. How about you? Sounds like no.
We are already seeing an Italianization of America – it’s called the rise of the Tea Party Grifters.
Marvel at how Curt Schilling, small government conservative, demands federal dollars to save his sinking videogame company.
Gaze in awe at how Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin quits her job as governor in order to make money conning old people into buying her books and movies.
Marvel in amazement as Rep. Joe Walsh, Tea Party Freshman who famously called the president a liar, won’t even pay his child support.
you want to talk about mafia-level corruption, look no further than the GOP Freshman class, its fundraisers and its talking heads.
Pitiful.
Thank a teacher’s union for your idiocy.
Just repeat this mantra: It’s all Bush’s fault 3 times. Your day will get better.
How’s Charlie Rangel doing these days? Why is this crook still serving in congress? Speaking of Grifters how can you explain the debt going from 10 Trillion to 15 trillion in less than 4 years? And you’re worried about a small company? How about Solyndra and 500 million of taxpayer money to pay for a set of solar panels? Thanks to the constant harrassment by the left Palin was forced to come up with needed cash to defend herself from numerous allegations. So first your kind smears her and then belittles her when she has to pay for her own defense because she’s just not crooked enough to weasel money out of the taxpayer like the rest of your leftist buddies.
Nice reply. Like it.
Just remember that “Master of the Muppets” is a common troll.
Treat him/her as such and he/she will soon troll elsewhere.
When the government, whose purpose it is to defend one from
criminals, becomes itself criminal, then everybody must become
a criminal just to survive. Seems like Cloward/Piven and Saul
Alinsky all wrapped into one slick package and raised to the
n-th power.
Founding Fathers’ Rap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ0Nkdi-GpE&feature=related
re: “Our fall elections are all about changing it, and if that fails, we will see a sort of Italianization of America, complete with the creation of a black market for money, much as we’ve seen the creation of a black market for cigarettes. ”
Michael, I lived in Brooklyn from 2007 to 2009, in a neighborhood where nearly all the adults were born somewhere else. “Beating the system” is routine.
You tell me how the state of NY gives food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, etc. to families with SUVs, auto insurance, auto park fees, Direct TV dishes, businesses, Wire Transfer facilities, jewelry stores, 3rd world fashion stores, etc.
Also, no one paid NY (high tax) prices for cigarettes. There was a regular black market for cigarettes purchased in NC or Virginia. I know. The store in the front of my building sold them and just to see if I could I bought some.
Tax evasion is a cancer. Greece is an example. Everytime an election is held the party who wins gives federal jobs to all their campaign workers plus all their relatives from their home village. Not surprisingly, the Greek public sector is overstaffed. Not surprisingly, the Greek public sector is understaffed in qualified workers (majors in accounting, business, finance, etc.)
I read a Greek newspaper (English language version ) ekatherimeni. The Greeks are in a state of shock, despondency. They are in a rage. But who to blame?
Greeks who make money from tourism demand cash or payment to an account in Lichtenstein. This is nominally tax evasion. Why should they pay taxes on their rentals? The Greek government employees are over-paid, under-worked, over-vacationed, and over-pensioned. The distance between the financial security of federal workers and ordinary people is so great that ordinary people view it their duty to avoid feeding the beast, paying taxes.
None of this is the American tradition. But, as Reagan warned, Freedom can be lost in a generation. God protect us from the pathologies of Italy and Greece.
Maybe this is why the Left doesn’t mind taxing and spending; they don’t pay anyway.
The idea of taxing foreign residents, though, IS a very American tradition.
Don’t tell me; I live abroad and spent an inordinate amount of time gathering info and filling a Foreign Bank Account Report for the last two years, not an easy task. And all of these “Accounts” are simply my savings, checking, pension, and company savings plan. Now I have to fill out 1040′s, although I will not likely not have t opay anything.
I had understood that only the US does this for foreign residents. On the other hand, few countries will pay you Social Security if you don’t live there, which is good as otherwise I will starve to death upon retirement.
By the way, it is practically impossible for an American to be self-employed here without being a tax cheat. Since there is no social security treaty, the US wants self-employment taxes. Add that to local taxes (income, self-employment, and 5% socialized medicine) – what’s left?
Michael, it sounds like you read http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/opinion/the-age-of-innocence.html?_r=1&ref=davidbrooks or seeing that you have been around the block, you are relating what you have experienced.
Mr Ledeen , you are several degrees of truth under the real nature of Italy political system; In my italian city (large, nothern italy, well educated, strong economy ) a friend of mine runs three elegant garment shops.Some ten years ago he received the visit of a Guardia di Finanza for a routine accountability control; they found a discrepancy between actual inventory and invoices payed to the garment manufacturers;n it was merely a delayed report in the invoices that had not been provided by the manufacturers.Well , my friend was summoned to the Guardia di Finanza building.There he met the local clerk who told him the problem was serious , that he had to pay a severe fine and he was not in any power to help him except to argue for his case on front of the boss.So my friend asked to meet the boss of Guardia di Finanza, who told him he would come to visit the evidence found at the shops to ” get a better understanding “.So the boss of GdF came , inspected the kind of things my firend was selling ( the best elegant garment shop in the city ) and asked my friend to pay him a visit at his private home.My friend arrived one evening and he was ” kindly ” invited to dress the Boss of Guardia di Finanza, his wife, his twenty years old son, with tailor custom-made italian suits for the men.My tailor friend had to accept the ” deal ” ( 5 winter suits + 5 summer suits ) for him and his son and 5 dresses for his wife.The ” deal ” was pushed to the limit for 3 years ( that’s 60 men’s suits + 15 dresses ) then the GdF officer let him free, and of course no fine was asked .This behaviour is everywhere in Italy.
thanks very much. as you say, this is not atypical. and of course your friend had to find a way to recoup his losses, and of course the state continues to steal.