The convenience of government theft

Yesterday was Tax Day in the United States, the infamous April 15. As they do every year, our media outlets treated us to stock footage of American taxpayers lining up at post offices across the country, which were open late on April 15 to accommodate last-minute filers. The story never changes, and the people who leave things until the last minute apparently never learn. These paper filers, however – these procrastinators who are part of the landscape of our popular culture, predictably interviewed while anxiously queued up every year at this time – are a dying breed. They're being eliminated by technology, as electronic filing and other conveniences eclipse the old paperwork through which taxes were computed, filed,and paid

That's a problem.

The technology of taxation is part and parcel of our changing technological landscape. Previously in Technocracy, we discussed the dangers of the death of cash, as electronic debit and credit processes make the carrying of real money something akin to a dying art. Recently, in fact, a federal appeals court ruled that simply having a large quantity of cash was presumptive evidence of a crime. As cash dies and electronic transfers become the norm, tracking your expenses (and controlling or seizing your assets) becomes that much more easily accomplished by an invasive government – but that is not the biggest issue, and not the problem to which I refer.

Supply-side economics' father warns of the debilitating consequences of higher taxes in "The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy – if We Let it Happen"

No, the real problem inherent to the technology of taxation (and of all government confiscation of your earnings, rationalized or not, justified or not, legal or not) is that it has become so convenient. For example, I have an Accounting degree, and as a point of pride I do my own taxes every year. I usually use a popular electronic tax program to do this, because it automatically generates the forms and schedules I need for my small business taxes and so on. This year, I waited until the last minute to do my taxes, but when I did, they went remarkably quickly. I filed the taxes electronically, received confirmation of receipt within a day (by e-mail), and put the whole affair behind me for another year. Why, it was so easy, I almost didn't notice the thousands of dollars of my income that I paid to the government this year.

TRENDING: Is this what you voted for, America?

Tax withholding has long been held up as the villain by fiscal conservatives, who point out that citizens who receive a refund each year (and who never see the taxes withheld from their paychecks) have no real concept of just how much of their earnings are being taken by a grasping, demanding, wasteful, arguably socialist federal government. While this is true, small business owners and anyone else who receives earnings not taxed at the source are only too familiar with paying estimated quarterly taxes, or with forking over large sums of money at tax time. The forces of government taxation, however, have responded by making it easier than ever before to pay your taxes with money you never see, quickly and almost effortlessly.

Just as you can e-file your taxes, you can pay for them without ever writing a paper check. You can even use a credit card, turning your government liability into slightly less terrifying private debt. Why, the program I used to file my taxes even let me deduct the fee for electronic filing from the refund itself – which means I'll never really feel the loss of that money, because I'll never see it.

The technology of earnings confiscation does not, however, apply only to the ever more convenient ways in which we pay our state and federal taxes each year. In New York, I spend considerable time on the New York State Thruway. The Thruway was one of those grand lies told by government. It was to be a toll road only until it was paid for, at which time, one assumes, the tolls would be lifted. Well, no tax levied is ever willingly repealed, except for rare exceptions, and the Thruway remains a monstrously expensive toll highway to this day.

Understanding just how angry it makes the average driver to hand out larger and larger sums each time he or she commutes to work, the Thruway implemented an electronic transponder program called E-ZPass. Now, a driver with an E-ZPass-equipped vehicle can roll through toll booths without fully stopping or paying any cash. The transponder is read by a scanner at the toll booth, and the driver's credit, debit, or prepaid check account is dunned accordingly. What this means is that previously outraged drivers can now roll up and down the New York State Thruway with no real conception of just how much money they are spending.

That is the insidious threat of all taxation and confiscation technology. The more convenient it becomes, the more transparent it becomes to the end user, the more it encourages complacency. Such technology allows our government to stick its hands in our pockets with ever-greater finesse; it becomes a pickpocket to rival Fagin's most promising pupil, while robbing us of our earnings as painlessly as possible. When we are no longer outraged, we no longer resist. When we are no longer inconvenienced, we no longer notice.

Technology is represented best by the lever. It allows us to accomplish more with less effort. In the case of consumer electronics technology and its use by our government, such technology enables that government to take our money as conveniently and quietly as possible. While this is a benefit to us in the short term, it is a terrible liability in the long run. It produces a society of willing contributors to the gaping maw of runaway government, who never truly know what they are spending.

If we never see it and, further, don't feel it when it is taken, we as American citizens will never speak out when we are robbed blind by the wireless minions of a networked tyrant.