Is paying income tax tacitly participating in the Iraq War?

[civildisoBDence]

Gandhi was inspired in part by Henry David Thoreau's "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," which Thoreau wrote after being jailed for protesting the Mexican War by refusing to pay a poll tax.

Thoreau, King, and Gandhi all believed that non-cooperation with evil is just as morally imperative as doing good.

It seems to me that the most effective way to protest the Iraq War would be to refuse to pay the federal income tax.

Here's a very difficult question to confront: Is paying your income tax a tacit approval of, and participation in, this unjust war?

Satire as thick as a president's skull

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. I wish I had the courage to send a little note instead of a check...

but I'm chicken.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. I'm not chicken.

But my prison memories aren't my best.

[civildisoBDence]

7. Wow--your signature says it all.

"Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you...may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." --Sam Adams

Viva la revolution? More like la revolution est morte, I'm afraid.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

12. les vies de révolution. nt

[patrice]

2. Yes.

That's one of the reasons protest is so necessary.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

4. Of Course It Is. It Is Why I Laugh At All Those Who So Smugly Condemn

others for spending money at 'red' companies. I laugh, because simply working for a living puts more money in the GOP pockets and more blood on our hands than any other act of expenditure we could partake in. I'm not going to omit that reality in order to pat myself on the back smugly for not spending 20 bucks at Outback, while ignoring the reality that I'm donating to their causes daily anyway.

[CollegeDUer]

10. An all or nothing kind of guy

The kind that's not very useful!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

13. Wrong. An Able To Maintain Reasoning And Logic In Spite Of Emotion Kind

of guy.

[CollegeDUer]

18. I don't see too much of any of those

sir.

[mike_c]

5. yes it is, IMO....

Unfortunately, Americans have to TRUST their government to spend their money wisely, or morally, or whatever. But any way you slice it, IMO, we are the ones supporting the war against Iraq. We are the ones paying for it, both when we pay our taxes and-- perhaps most important-- when we vote to reelect the rat bastards who time and again approve federal funding for the war. We give them our vote of confidence for their actions on "our behalf," so when they vote to approve funding for the war, and we vote to keep them in office, we get precisely the government we deserve.

[handsignals4theblind]

6. don't be stupid - yes it does- USA depends on military jobs

Isn't interesting to note that alot of the parents of the killers of Colombine worked in the missle/ aerospace industry. The Americans cannot make high end consumer goods anymore and are reliant on Japanese micro chips to make their weapons.
Why is it that in the USA the Defense Industry lobbys Congress and not you? they should be Goverment run corporations ( at hands length)

[grytpype]

8. No, the war is being paid for by increasing the national debt.

China is buying US debt, which is being used to fund the war.

Bush CUT taxes during the war, remember? China's paying for it, so chill.

[civildisoBDence]

9. That sounds like a rationalization.

It's cold comfort in any case...

[unblock]

11. absolutely not

paying taxes is mandatory, you don't have a choice, as a practical matter.
ok, if you want to be extreme about it, you could flee the country, and/or earn little enough to avoid being liable for federal income taxes, etc. but as a practical matter, you are coerced into paying taxes.

you cannot be both coerced into doing something and responsible for doing it at the same time.

moreover, paying taxes isn't the only mark of participation in this country or in this country's government. if you vote, are you responsible for the outcome of the election (even if you voted for the losing side)? if you accept other government services, such as mail delivery, are you responsible for everything else the government does?

i am not "tacitly participating" in anything and everything the shrubbies are doing, even if they claim to be doing it in my name.

my responsibility is to be knowledgeable about what my government is doing, and to take various actions to try to steer it in my preferred direction. if i put my head in the sand, or fail to raise my voice, then i am quietly accepting what they do. but if i do my research, if i do voice my opinions, if i do vote for better candidates, if i do donate wisely, etc., then i have explicitly participated in the opposition to such things as the iraq war, which surely trumps whatever ethereal "tacit participation" due to my tax paying.

[Sparkly]

14. No, our children and grandchildren's taxes will pay for this fiasco.

It's all BORROWED money at this point.

[otherlander]

15. Yes, but...

since they're getting all the money they need from China, would it even matter if every single American refused to pay their taxes? Also, in the end, wouldn't you end up paying more in fines than you would have payed in the first place?

[Cleita]

16. There is a precedent for this back in the Vietnam war when

many affluent protesters, I remember Joan Baez specifically, refused to pay a portion of their taxes that would go for the war. To tell the truth, I don't know how this played out in the long run because it sort of fell off the top of the news. The rest of us working class slogs didn't dare.

[MercutioATC]

17. No, paying taxes keeps my ass out of jail...

...so I can give money to Democrats and post here and raise my son to have a longer attention span than the average gnat...umm, I mean American...


It's been tried. Folks, pay your taxes and use your freedom to do what it was designed to do...make this country an example of what things should be.