by Doug Casey, International Man:
International Man: Last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and more than 130 countries agreed to set a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%.
What’s your take on this push for global taxation?
Doug Casey: They say only two things in the world are inevitable: death and taxes. Both evils, to be avoided. With technology developing at its current pace, let’s discuss the inevitability of death another time. But, unlike death, taxes aren’t part of the cosmic firmament. They’re neither necessary nor desirable.
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Let’s go back to the basics, define the word in question, and look at the moral concepts that surround the subject.
What is taxation? It’s actually theft. Why do I say that?
If you look up the dictionary definition of theft, it says, “the act of stealing, specifically the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it.”
There is no clause that says, “unless you’re the government, then it’s taxation and not theft anymore.” Theft is theft, even if you and a few associates set yourselves up as the government and decide to call it something else. It’s still destructive, criminal, and immoral, even if you decide the theft is for a “good” purpose.
The ideal in a moral society is voluntarism. Coercion is kept to a minimum. It certainly isn’t institutionalized and made part of the cultural fabric. If funds are needed or wanted, no one has a right to hold a gun to someone else’s head and steal them.
How you think and feel about the subject of taxation is a reflection of your worldview, your ethical makeup, and your essential character. Do you prefer voluntary exchange or coercion? Of course, coercion is the essence of government. That’s why government should be limited to the greatest degree possible.
In that light, it’s very disturbing that 130 national governments have already endorsed the notion of a 15% minimum tax. Why aren’t they, instead, talking about a 15% maximum tax?
If this destructive idea is implemented, at best, we’re going to wind up another layer of bureaucracy to administer worldwide pork barrel spending. Those who are already rich, the politically connected, and the apparatchiks will be huge beneficiaries. Society at large will suffer a big drop in the standard of living.
This trend is evil, destructive, and unnecessary. It should be fought against, not just because it will slow, distort, or even destroy the world economy. Taxes degrade everything, as does any form of theft. But taxes shouldn’t be fought with practical or economic arguments; they should be fought primarily on an ethical and a moral basis.
International Man: So far, the US government hasn’t signed on to the OECD deal even though Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen has strongly supported the creation of a minimum global corporate tax rate.
Do you think American companies and citizens will eventually be under the yoke of a global taxation regime?
Doug Casey: Yes. There’s always been a move towards world government on the part of a certain type of person—the kind who thinks they know what’s best for everyone else. Busybodies who are willing to use force to ensure you do what they think is right. It’s a disastrous idea. These people are the enemies of individualism, liberty, free markets, and Western values in general. They’re actually antihuman.
The ideal isn’t one world government but the opposite. Something as close as we can get to seven billion individual governments where everyone is self-governing. Or at least a world with thousands of small and relatively powerless states—Monacos, Lichtensteins, Dubais, and Hong Kongs. The problem is that government is about coercion, and in a peaceful civil society, you want to limit coercion as much as possible. You don’t want to elevate a local bully’s coercion up to a national level and then, God forbid, a world level.
The people we now have in Washington, the Bidenistas, don’t want just a national stage; they want a world stage for themselves. People who want to control other people often start out as nobodies running for school council. Then they move up to becoming aldermen, then county commissioners, and state representatives. They’re little people with grandiose ambitions, interested in power and telling other people what to do.
It’s natural that the most power-grabbing and venal types are most supportive of international tax initiatives and world government. Janet Yellen? An incompetent nothing/nobody, living proof of the Peter principle and affirmative action. In a depoliticized world, she wouldn’t have risen beyond slicing mortadella behind a deli counter.
International Man: It may start as a global minimum corporate tax. However, what do you think the chances are that it will expand to a worldwide minimum income tax for individuals? Perhaps a global VAT (Value Added Tax) and wealth tax are in the cards too.
Doug Casey: We have to remember that, long ago, when the US was actually an exceptional country, it had no tax. There was no national tax of any type, only import duties, and some excise taxes. Then, as the US mutated into a multicultural domestic empire, hundreds of taxes were imposed to finance it. The income tax is the biggest, of course, followed by Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. With annual Federal deficits now over a trillion and going to two or three trillion as the Greater Depression deepens, you can count on both a national VAT and a wealth tax in the US.
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