Reader Question: The Heroin of Signing Up?

Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!

TC writes:  I just got my mafia notice (in re Obamacare and the “Shared Responsibility Payment”) and was wondering what came of yours. Funny thing, my “income” was from phantom capital gains once the wash sale rule was applied. I was already taxed on phantom monies; now I have to pay an unenforceable tax for phantom health care that I did not receive, but illegal alien and “immigrant” neighbors did get. Market Watch runs a story every day now about Americans who are fleeing the U.S. because they cannot afford to live in Spain, Portugal, Ecuador. We “welcome” tens of millions – but need to “welcome” hundreds of millions or is it billions more with free healthcare, food, housing and sacrosanct status in academia and employment. Look to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib as example of the system working. I am seriously thinking of liquidating my portfolios and taking the cash; when the IRS comes for their cut – claim to be a heroin addict with a thousand dollar a day habit. I wonder if that is a good strategy?

My reply: I have not received a letter from the mafia recently. I have the Orange Man to thank for this. It is among the reasons why I support the Orange Man – despite his being far from the Libertarian ideal. But he is far from being her – and she would have made sure I (and you and millions of other refuseniks) did make our “Shared Responsibility Payment.”   

The mandate to send the health insurance mafia money no longer has teeth – provided you are careful about structuring what the government steals from you in federal taxes such that it doesn’t “owe” (perverse way to refer to returning stolen goods) you a “refund” at the end of the year. If you don’t do this, the government can still deduct your “Shared Responsibility Payment” – in part or in whole – from your “refund.”

The other way to avoid being mulcted by the mafia – and the government, which serves as its Luca Brasi collections agency – is to keep your income low enough  that you’re not subject to the mandate – or the mulcting. This of course is very difficult to do for those who have large mortgage/rent payments to make and families to feed and care for. This requires earning an income high enough to qualify – as it were – for the mulcting, a bizarre and heinous Catch 22.  You’re forced to earn – in order that they can steal.

It is no wonder Americans are enlisting in the Free Shit Army. Why not? You can’t fault a man who grabs a piece of driftwood to keep himself afloat after the ship he was traveling in sank. The worrisome thing is that as more and more people shrug – as Ayn Rand put – the people who still have assets, including paid-for homes and some money in savings – are going to be mulcted even more fiercely to pay the quartering costs of the Free Shit Army.

If it were possible to liquidate one’s assets into a form under one’s physical control – such as precious metals – and quietly exit, stage left to a less predatory place, that would be the thing to do.

But it is effectively impossible to transmute paper/digital assets into portable physical assets such as precious metals without Uncle putting you in a chokehold and seizing whatever he says you “owe.” And even if that could avoided, where to go? Is there a place less predatory  left on this earth? I mean, one that’s habitable (i.e., not Antarctica).

It may be and probably is slightly better in say Argentina – but only because they haven’t caught up yet. They are in the process of catching up. You might get another 10 years. Maybe.

But, there may be hope. It is possible people – enough people – will reject the Brave New World that’s being built all around us. It’s the only hope that keeps me going, at any rate. If I had lost all faith – and at times, I do – I couldn’t gin up the fight to keep writing. Instead, I’d be maxing out my credit cards and saying Gibs Muh Dat like the rest of the maggots and enjoying the party while it lasts.

On second thought, I’d rather just shoot myself. Better a cold but non-maggot corpse than a living maggot!

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