Freedom on the Halfshell
A Collection of Poems on Freedom
Copyright 2002 by Bobby Matherne
Click Me to Read the Next Poem of Freedom on the Halfshell
Poll Tax
Poll Tax — Prologue
In a "Notes from FEE" for January 2006, they celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) by abridging a 1961 lecture at FEE by Leonard E. Read (1898-1983).
This level of attainment requires no “original” thinking, writing or talking, but we should not underestimate the enormous influence set in motion by an individual who does absolutely no ideological wrong. His refusal to sanction or promote unsound actions and his faithfulness to free-market ideals — even if he is silent — has a radiating effect and sets high standards for others to follow.
Leonard E. Read said:
The “right to vote” is hurled as an epithet as if it were some God-given benison, but little voice is given to what happens when one votes for a coercive bureaucracy such the one which rules this great land under the guise of government, up until now. Every time one walks into a polling booth, it is as if one votes to continue the coercive bureaucracy. One gives it freely one's support, no matter who one votes for. What is one to do?
The first level of leadership requires an individual to achieve that degree of understanding which makes it utterly impossible for him to have any hand in supporting or giving encouragement to any form of socialism whatever misleading labels and nicknames it takes.
One can do “no ideological wrong” by only choosing to “vote” for proprietary organizations which provide one a service one wants quickly, conveniently, and without any coercion. Any fast-food establishment, for example, does that. Take their innovation of drive-up service. Can you find an example of any “government” office which provides drive-up service? Even the Department of Motor Vehicles requires to you get out of your car to apply for a license plate renewal, etc. You have to sit in an uncomfortable chair or stand in a long line in “government” offices, all the while people are waiting in short lines in their comfortable automobiles to buy food from fast-food outlets. What's the difference? The “government” offices force you to comply because they are all part of a “coercive bureaucracy” not a true government. A true government would operate volitionally and not coercively — just as any proprietary business does. And as a proprietary business the clerk across the counter would treat you as a valued customer. The clerk would have an incentive to be nice, or helpful, and accommodating, just as the clerks at the fast-food outlets. Instead we find all too often at our “government” offices, clerks who have no incentive to be nice, or helpful, or accommodating because they know we have nowhere else to go for their cherished “service.” Every time we voluntarily support a “government” office or program that we are not required to by dint of coercive law, we foster and perpetuate such behaviors.
What are we to do? We can take Leonard E. Read advice and refuse to take “any hand in supporting or giving encouragement to any form of socialism whatever misleading labels and nicknames it takes” and recognize that what passes for true government in this land is a form of socialism given a palatable name.
We cannot achieve freedom by fighting for it — that only brings in its wake more fighting. We have to go the Dept. of Motor Vehicles for a license. We have to pay taxes. But we do not have to vote! It requires no fighting, it violates no laws to stay away from the polls. Americans in droves are already doing so. Those who favor a coercive form of bureaucracy in place of true government label as “apathetic voters” those who stay home from the polls. This is a “misleading label” which disguises the true motivations of those non-voting Americans who stay away from the polls. They are seeding a new birth of freedom in this great land, one which will eventually proclaim a true governement of the free, by the free, and for the free.
Who are you going to vote for come next election?
Poll Tax — Poem
We think it incorrect to shun
The blessings of coercion:
Please force the voters to attend
Their duties in the next election.The right to vote a duty must become
So jail the beggars who beg off,
Make them vote for liberty or else
Why should we fight for them?Thoreau had the right idea-
Although it wasn't carried far enough -
Let's institute a brand new practice:
That when you go to vote, you pay your taxes:Income, excise, sales, and property -
Paid in one lump sum for liberty.How many would out the window toss
The right to vote, if they knew its cost?So secure the blessing of our roots,
Stay away from polling booths,
With the voice of freedom sing,
"Next election vote for Burger King."
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