Your argument is based on the assumption that people do highly illegal things routinely, but you don't provide any example. What are examples of highly illegal things people are doing routinely?
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
Your argument is based on the assumption that people do highly illegal things routinely, but you don't provide any example. What are examples of highly illegal things people are doing routinely?
This is a well documented phenomenon known as overcriminalization. I will not attempt to summarize it here, but there are abundant examples readily available by searching online, or even just randomly opening a major state's code books (the United States Code being a fairly canonical example) and thinking about whether the contents are a sane way to run a society or not. You might also find the book Three Felonies a Day instructive, which was written by a lawyer who became concerned at the 'crimes' and convictions he began to see in his daily work. I have not personally read this book, though, and know it only by reputation.
I am aware of the concept. I'm actually quite in agreement with Ayn Rand's view that law is intentionnally designed to criminalize an always higher number of people so that they may be controlled through their own guilt, fear and shame, and increasingly through direct blackmail and legal bullying thanks to all the dirt that the all watching eye of the NSA is capturing and storing forever in their data vault.
What I was pointing to is the fact that not everyone is convinced of that, and that without clear, real-life examples, the argument isn't very convincing.
I'll give one example based on my own circumstances. Where I'm living, the tax code states that long term capital gains are gains from profits made on a "long enough" period of time, "depending on specific circumstances" and "the nature of the activity". None of what I put in quotes is defined at all anywhere in the tax code. And calling the IRS doesn't help because they just explain that it is determined case by case, and there is no precise guideline. In other words, if you are actively managing a financial portfolio, you are routinely misreporting some of your gains because no matter what you do, an IRS agent can always arbitrarily decide that your definition of "long term" is too short to his liking, or that your circumstances are the type of circumstances where you can't claim long term capital gains, and find you guilty of misreporting your income. The only way to be safe is to volunteer to declare all your trading as short term trading income and pay more taxes. And even then, you'd still be potentially doing something illegal: reporting more income than you actually made is a false declaration. As soon as your inflated tax statements start being used to increase your credit card limit or get a loan, you could be found guilty of fraud.
I'd be interested to hear a better everyday life example that more people can relate to though. Speeding perhaps?
Brilliant example! I agree, real world stories of the harm of the state are indeed important. Pathos is a technique of persuasion I have not mastered yet.
As for me, I think I've always felt at some level that if I chose to become savvy at that system, I'd be embracing my slavery to an extent I simply wasn't comfortable with. At that point I would be choosing to develop myself within and through that system because it is the 'safe' choice. I instead chose to pay the higher extortion rates on ignorance of that system and that pain motivated me to end my enslavement sooner rather than later. I now have detached myself from it and consent to it no longer.
So I have few stories of mishaps with the state. I have, for the most part, left it behind me now.