ONE APPROACH TO WAR TAX RESISTANCE
ON TAX DAY – WANT TO FIND OUT HOW TO MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS AND PAY NO TAX?
“First. Get a million dollars. Then, when the tax man comes knocking at your door, you say, I forgot.” That’s a Steve Martin joke. OK, let’s get serious. Want to know how to be a long-term WAR TAX RESISTOR? It is rather simple – pun intended. Read on:
35 years-ago I left paid employment after becoming fully disgusted with my job in the offense industry. I’d decided after understanding that the US uses its military globally to advance its business interests, essentially, getting richer from further impoverishing others. This violated every right-wing bone in my body. Yes, I was a young Republican. I just had ethical problems with brutally stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
I’ve two photos above: before and after. The first is in the spring of 1989 right before I turned in the top-secret clearance. My plan was to become a full-time volunteer and war tax-resistor. But how to do it and not risk having my house taken away?
What I decided to try, was a life of radical simplicity. I even wrote a book with that title published in 2003. My film (www.savingwaldensworld.org) provides a cinematic version of my experiments. Now 35 years into it, I can say, it has been quite a ride. More or less, what I decided to try, was to live as close to the average of all people on earth, which in the book I call inter-human equity – living a life that shares equally with all people on earth.
In 1989, the equitable amount of global GDP was $5,000 a year. Still, at this yearly income, I was among the wealthiest 17% of humanity. In San Luis Obispo California, I rented three of the four rooms in the house, took the car off the road and planted a vegetable garden. Had 13-yard sales.
The plan more or less worked. I’ve mostly volunteered. With all the free time I’ve mastered the infinite ways to have fun that are quite inexpensive. I’ve built houses, repaired my own car, crossed Canada twice by bike and got decent at growing fruits and vegetables and harvesting wild edible plants. I’d say, overall, learning to play the guitar is harder than learning how to live simply. I’ve mostly lived off the interest from the savings I had at age 30.
So, what do you have to lose? Imagine your tax dollar transferred to billionaires to execute DOGE. The current administration calls helping those less fortunate than yourselves, ENTITLEMENT. Billionaires complaining about ENTITLEMENT — that’s rich. They are looking to eliminate anything that makes us human — being your sister’s and brother’s keeper. How does it feel to give a portion of your hard-earned dollars to billionaires?
Believe me, I am more than happy to pay for public schools, teachers, libraries, parks, wilderness, food assistance, DEI programs, universal health care, higher education, maternity leave, child care… the whole Bernie Sanders enchilada. I just don’t want a penny going to support Israel in its genocide, or Putin in his genocide, or Trump in his kleptocracy. Step 1. Starve the Corporations. Step 2. Spend less than you earn. Step 3. Have fun creatively living from the local economy as much as is practical for you, given your life, responsibilities, your family. 4. Smile a lot.