i haven't looked at that video, but this brings up an interesting point i've been thinking about lately; should you pay income tax if you disagree with what it's used for? to use an example, if you don't agree with the government- let's say you don't believe in the war in iraq, shouldn't you cease funding it via paying taxes?
i guess what i'm getting at is, what place does civil disobedience have in a modern democratic society?

there was a documentary i saw on ifc or sundance that followed a family that hadn't payed income taxes for about ten years. their argument was that they didn't believe in their taxes being used to fund the military and war causes. after fighting with the government for several years, their house was taken from them and they decided to "squat" on the residence after it was occupied by new owners. they somehow ended up winning their court case and i think they even got their home back. i think the settlement ended up that the family only had to pay the percentage of taxes that weren't used for military expenses. something like 15% or so.

interesting. that's cool how it worked out in the end.
imagine if everyone did that; there may be no war in iraq.

That doc was screened near me and the director came and spoke.

How obnoxious the whole thing was, vilifying the people who legally bought the home that had been legally repossessed.

That's not cool, presuming they didn't go about it in some underhanded manner and pay severely under market value for the home. Although as long as it's legal, no issue.

They need to make it clear who the "bad guy" is, i.e. the government, or they're just going to undermine their argument and make it look silly.

i think most of the time, houses are sold well below market, sometimes you even only have to pay the back taxes

Interesting.

The funny thing is, most libertarians would consider military spending one of the only legitimate Federal expenditures. I'm wondering at what point these people would support paying for military upkeep, if at all. Refusing to give money to support national defense as a principle is a rather silly idea, seeing as how no one else could possibly take the place of a national military, and wishing for a pacifist world doesn't make it any more so. Additionally, seeing as how our government spends with abandon the money it doesn't have I would imagine that percieved political capital is much more important that actual income tax revenues when it comes to the government declaring a war.

i would be deported if i didn't.

And then you'd have to pay even higher taxes in your home country, so really, you're getting a deal here.

i've never paid taxes in Holland. all the jobs i had i got paid in cash, loved it.

In the interest of saving money? I'll protest the trillion dollar bloated social welfare program and not pay taxes. You guys protest the 1/10 of that that's going into the war.

In "reality", the total spending on "social programs" looks to be less than 50% more than the defense department, and that's counting such things as education, agriculture, and HUD, which IMO are not necessarily "bloated social welfare programs".

IF ONLY the war cost 1/10 of the budget for such things...

http://www.federalbudget.com/

As noted in earlier posts, our tax dollars go toward funding much more than the War in Iraq. That being said, a protest such as this would de-fund everything else. Also, going by this thinking, people would start to come up with dozens of reasons why they should pay taxes. For example, citizens without children could band together and refuse to pay their local/state taxes because of a large appropriation towards education. They could say - Hey, I don't have any children...why should I pay for something I'm not benefiting from?
At the least, it's a bad idea...look at Wesley Snipes.

In my opinion, this is why we have the House of Representatives (and representatives at the local/state level) and why they are up for election every two years. If you don't like how they are voting to spend taxpayer dollars, then vote them out and pick someone who better represents your desires.

Amen.

Jesus said you should pay your taxes, and that's good enough for me.

Did you miss the health and human services part? What about social security? Now, I'll admit, I'm not up to par on my budget numbers as of the last two years, but the last time I knew what the numbers were, the money spent on various social welfare programs alone in America had just superceded the money alloted for the military. And again, that number didn't include social security.

What's the yearly cost of Operation Enduring Freedom? 100 billion? And hey, at least we're paying those people to work. It's going towards something productive.

Freedom costs a buck 'o five.

This issue is coming up where I live, as many people are apparently not going to pay water charges when they are brought in later this year.

That's what I said. 50% MORE.

I also read it as "50 percent of" rather than "50 percent more".