It’s All Connected . . .

By
eric
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There is a connectedness afoot that becomes increasingly obvious – because it’s becoming impossible not to see it.   

One such connection – that connects to others – is the drive to make owning cars (including electric ones) less and less financially feasible, by making it more and more expensive. In this connection, there is the news out of Minnesota of a proposal by its governor, Tim Walz, to apply a sneakily heightened registration tax (these things are not “fees” – which are paid voluntarily for services/goods one wishes to purchase that one is free to decline to purchase) to owner of cars less than ten years old based upon 160 percent of the “book value” value of their cars.

Holy Mackerel, said the Kingfish!

It is despicable enough to apply any such tax – as the taking of money by force or its threat is always a vile thing. It’s why it’s a crime – when the act is committed by an ordinary individual.

But taxes that entail more than just theft – that require the handing-over of money, regularly, as the condition of being permitted to use or retain possession of a piece of property (such as a car, for instance) are a means of destroying the very concept of property.

Or rather, of defining who actually owns the property in question.

The true owner being, of course, the person who isn’t obliged to pay anyone else to be allowed to retain/use the property.

If you are obliged to pay the government money to “register” your vehicle and if failure to pay to “register” it debars your use of the vehicle or – as in some instances – allows the government to seize the vehicle (even if it is not used, even if it is parked on your own so-called “property”) then you do not own the car – or the property.

The person (or people) you’re forced to pay does.

This tax is meant to bring home the point – as well as another point. The latter being that they – meaning these people who constitute in flesh-and-blood what is meant by the use of the term, “the government” – mean to tax you out of your car altogether. Just as they have been doing in many areas as regards taxing people out of their homes – by applying taxes to them that the “owners” cannot afford to pay.

Bill Glahn of the American Experiment explains:

“Currently, the initial tax is 1.285 percent of the MSRP, plus 10 dollars. To illustrate, if you buy and register a brand-new $30,000 car, the registration tax would be $395.50. (There are lots of other taxes and fees, including hefty sales taxes).

Year 2, the registration tax is 90 percent of that. Year 3, 80 percent, and so on.

Under Walz’ proposal, the tax increases to 1.285 percent of 160 percent of the MSRP, or $626.80. You don’t have to be a math genius to calculate that the tax went up 60 percent. Year 2, the tax is on 100 percent of MSRP. Year three, on 90 percent, and so on. It’s as if you paid $48,000 for the car.”

Glahn forgets to explain that you never stop paying for the car – irrespective of how long ago you paid for it. These taxes are serial; they never end – until you no longer own the car. It is a very effective way to drive people out of their cars – and by discourage them from buying one, too. Even a modestly priced new car – as for example the $30,000 car described by Glahn – incurs a “registration” tax (on top of all the other taxes) of several hundred dollars in states like Minnesota. If the tax is annual, as “registration” renewal often is,  it won’t be long before you’ve paid another 20 percent (or more) in taxes than what you paid for the car.

Own the car long enough and you may find you’ve paid enough – in serial taxes – to have bought another one just like it. Only you haven’t got the money to do that – because the government took it.

Some states – Virginia, for instance – apply both annual “registration” and property taxes upon car owners. The owner is never done paying for either. I added up what I have paid to be allowed to retain possession of my 21-year-old truck, which I paid the seller for many years ago. But the government keeps sending me bills which I am obliged to pay if I do not wish give the government legal pretext to seize what I sometimes childishly permit myself to think of as “my” truck.”

Which it obviously isn’t if someone else can legally seize it for “non-payment.”

These payments are staggering – especially in proportion to what the vehicle is worth currently worth. The latter being maybe $4,500 or so. The former amounting to at least $1,575. I italicize “at least” to emphasize the fact that the tax wasn’t always a “piddling” $75 per year, as it currently is – based on the currently assessed value. A decade ago, it was $150 per year. And it was more, before that.

The closer you got to what it was worth when it was new.

But – for the sake  of this discussion  – some $1,500 in cumulative property taxes applied to a truck the value of which is now only about three times that. If we were talking about gas taxes we’d be talking about a 35 percent tax rate.

But at least it’s not 160 percent – as it looks like it might soon be in Minnesota.

As it may come to be everywhere, as we get closer to 2030 – by which time we’ll “own nothing” and “be happy.”

. . .

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Related posts:
  1. Hidden Costs That Cost a Lot
  2. Game The System
  3. Creative Resistance
  4. The Best Reason to Not Buy Any New Car
  5. The Little Affronts

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46 COMMENTS

      • Hi Eric

        AI that writes….

        The Brave New World Of Artificial Intelligence

        If you aren’t worried yet, I’ll let you in on a little secret: The first three paragraphs of this column were written by ChatGPT, the chatbot created by OpenAI. You can add “columnist” to the list of jobs threatened by this new technology, and if you think there is anything human that isn’t threatened with irrelevance in the next five to 10 years,

        https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/brave-new-world-artificial-intelligence

        • Hi Anon,

          Yup. Although AI cannot replicate the creative nuance – the “voice,” if you like – of a writer. It can do stenography journalism. Still, I take your point. Frank Herbert was right about thinking machines. They will end humanity if we do not end them.

          • Eric,
            And Herbert made that prediction in 1965, in Dune, referring to the Butlerian Jihad. Almost 60 years ago. Throw in The Matrix, and The Terminator, and we’ve had plenty of timely warnings about it.
            ChatGPT, or any other AI, is a computer program, and computers are the ultimate moron. They believe whatever their programmers tell them, and those programmers are increasingly thinking outside of reality. In fact, they view reality as the enemy.

        • ChatGPT leftist bias…

          from zh comments….

          asked ChatGPT if any elected officials had ever engaged in physical altercations in the Capitol. It replied that Louis Gohmert (R-Tx) had a physical altercation with Al Greene (D-Tx) on January 6, 2021. I then asked it to cite the news stories containing that information. It gave me links to CNN, ABC, PBS and CBS. None of the links were active or contained the story. It apologized.

          I asked specifically about the “Caning of Senator Sumner” in 1858 – the most famous and physically damaging attack ever to take place. It replied correctly but left out party affiliation (a pro slavery Democrat laid in wait in the Senate and severely beat the head of a pro abolition Republican with a cane). It responded correctly.

          I then asked how many times an elected official physically attacked another elected official in the Capitol. It listed 4 incidents. The last one was the January 6 “riot”.

          I asked what elected officials physically attacked another on January 6. It agreed that none had and apologized.

          Asked who Jordan Triston Walker was – the Pfizer Director of Research in the news – ChatGPI didn’t know.

          It also won’t write a letter recommending Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe.

          I suspect that the same “intelligence” agencies are behind ChatGPT as manage Google, Twitter, Facebook, Snopes, and every “fact checking” organization.

          It’s fun to force it to display its left wing bias but not very useful.

          https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/chatgpt-writes-poem-praising-hunter-biden

          • There also was a GP article that showed how the chat AI would write huge praising poems for every single ethnicity … except white folks

  2. Yep, IT is coming your way, overbearing tyranny at it’s best, done the American Way! Bigger. Better. More! More! More!

    Crying about it wont stop anything. Voting wont stop anything. Fighting wont stop anything. Moving to the woods and living off-grid…whatever that means, wont do any good. If THEY want you, THEY will get you. Enjoy the suck. They want to take away your cash, cars, guns, right to live? Already happened! What do you think taxes are?

    Go to prison. Go ahead. See how much you like it. Protest if it makes you feel better. But make sure you only protest in the approved manner. Prison ain’t all bad. If yer not in prison, yer asking for it. Bow down, or lock down. Every single one of us has chosen to bow down; I do not believe any of you are in prison today, right? I guess if we haven’t revolted by now, why wouldn’t THEY believe THEY can’t get away with turning us into a bunch of gerbils, hmmm? Did you go to prison over….anything yet? forced to fork over half or more….told what you can buy, sell, think, act…pretty much anything you can think of. Learn to live with it. You. Have. No. Rights.

    There is always a choice. Everyday you are not in prison you have decided things are just not quite bad enough to risk prison…yet. Always an undefined future when, finally, we shall rise up and be heard!! Lol! Really? I doubt it. Only when life in the US of A becomes worse than….prison.
    Basically it’s like this. Kow tow as little as you need to, if you can live with yourself. But do not be fooled, by going along, even a little, you are perpetuating all of it. When Biden does something stupid and criminal…pat yourself on the back for helping it along. No worries, as long as you can justify it somehow, it ain’t me doing it, directly I mean. Ooops. I guess if only a few million others would rise up, well, then I could, too.

    Where is your line in the sand? My bet is the line for most of you is so far down the path of total destruction that you can’t even see it. Yet. Until it is too late. “I’ll pull my guns out and start resisting….later” at least until after the Super Bowl. will there be cheetos in prison?

    Think very hard. Draw your line. Never cross it. Even unto death. Anything else is just pathetic whining.
    Your principles are worth something; your continued existence? Apparently not. Comfort is soo nice, isn’t it? America will become the most comfortable tyranny of all time. Very interesting times we live in. Try to have some fun while you enjoy the suck.

    And duck your responsibility for it. Like your parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did. Can kicking, its faaaantastic!

    • Hi Andy,

      There is a great deal of truth in what you’ve written. It is why I decided my line is the “mask” – and (obviously) the drugs they call “vaccines.” I never once wore the god-damned “mask” – and was prepared to accept whatever consequences arose. Including jail. Same goes for the “vaccines.” And same goes for CBDC. I will not abide any of these things, come what may. I do not want to go to jail and I would very much like to avoid a fight, if it can be avoided. But I will not “mask.” Ever. I will not submit to being injected with any drug, contrary to my will. And I will not live in a society that monitors every transaction I make and makes transactions conditional upon good behavior. I do not say these things as a “tough guy.” I am a tired guy.

      For what it’s worth.

      I also think there are a lot of others of like mind. You haven’t seen pushback yet because normal people just want to live their lives and avoid conflict. But a point does come… and when it comes, it will be an unstoppable moment.

    • Andy,
      If I recall correctly, Emerson visited Thoreau while he was in jail for draft evasion. Emerson asked Thoreau “What are you doing in there”, to which Thoreau replied “What are you doing out there?”
      Of course, my ability to “recall correctly” isn’t as good as it once was.
      When law is unjust, where should a just man be?

      • A further thought, I’m more inclined to skip the jail thing and go right to a fight on my doorstep. Of course I’m 68 years old, and have less to lose than most. But I will gladly do it in favor to my progeny.

  3. Gee, thanks for brightening my morning, Eric. I hadn’t heard this gem from our “beloved dictator” yet. Walz has been piling on the crap the last couple of weeks. I’m seriously thinking about moving. I love this state, but the government is making it unbearable to live here.

    • Hi Lonewolf,

      Here’s something truly insane re taxes. California is seeking to tax literally ANYONE who ever worked in the state but since moved to other states. I’m not aware of any such proposal in Minnesota or in my home state of Oregon, but whenever California has a truly insane bill or proposal, it tends to spread to other states. It also seems that whenever politicians (usually those with a “D” next to their name) propose new taxes, they always claim it’s to “Stick it to millionaires and billionaires”, but somehow wealthy politicians, corporate & Uber wealthy donors to the U.S. Empire, and Hollywood types are exempted, while the new taxes affect the masses in some way.

      • I had heard that. How do they think they would collect it? Seems like it would be easy to ignore.

        Minnesota is the California of the upper Midwest. The courts just upheld a “green vehicle” bill. No Balls Walz just signed a bill prohibiting “hair discrimination” and another enshrining abortion. Rumor has it that he is starting to talk about gun control laws. Magazine capacity, storage, background checks for private sales, and possibly something about storage. I don’t know how much more I can take here, but but every other state seems to be heading in the same direction, just slower.

        My wife and my son want me to just ignore it all. They think that I am being ridiculous for being concerned about it all.

        • I do not think you are being ridiculous at all, LoneWolf. It is akin to the frog slowly being boiled in hot water. By the time the frog realizes the water is too hot…much like our freedoms, both the frog and our freedoms are cooked.

      • Hi John,
        California tried that several years ago and it was struck down by the courts, hopefully it will be again, and swiftly. The fedgov has the exclusive right to tax you wherever you go to live and probably don’t want to share.
        My son worked in Japan for several years and really liked the culture there, I actually suggested he stay there and never come back to the USSA but during his time there he still had to pay tribute to Uncle.

    • Hello again LoneWolf. I moved out of Montana after it got over run by stupid, idiot California liberals who realized that Communism did not work in their state. But were too damned dumb to leave it behind and decided to “try it again” somewhere else. Not realizing that their new home state was nice because people like them were not there to wreck it. Up here in Alaska we have had outside money that helped shove rank choice voting through, which means we will never have honest elections again. I think at some point there will be no state left to run to, and we will have to grow some balls and push back against those who wish to turn us into a 70s style communist Russian, and all the miseries that go with it.

    • Lonewolf… jump the river and move here to Wisconsin! It might be the home to the modern Lincoln Republican party and to Progressivism but compared to the surrounding States (Michigan, Illinois, and especially Minnesota,) we’re relatively “free.” So much so that our commie governor doesn’t really have any power to pass whatever amount if control his wet dreams are made of. And if it’s gun-culture you’re specifically looking for, I would put our State (especially the top half) up against any other. Plus, many of the vehicle taxes Eric talks about are non-existent here. I don’t even know what he’s talking about half the time! Lol

      • Got room for a furniture maker, trapper, and small farmer? Without me spending an arm and a leg?

        Seriously, though, I don’t know what I want to do. If I decide to move I think I would end up being a bachelor again. A move with such extreme consequences is not to be done lightly or as a wim.

      • Hi Logan,

        That’s good news re Wisconsin. Virginia used to be ok in many ways but the evil influence of Northern Virginia is doing to the rest of the state what San Francisco and LA have done to CA.

        • Eric,

          Oregon has the same problem. It is DOMINATED by the crazies in Portlandia, and they, along with 8 years of fmr Queen Kate Brown, have all but destroyed the state. I was born in Oregon and consider it home, especially as it’s a beautiful state and the part of the state where I live is largely sane compared to Portland. However, we now have a new Governor who could make Kate Brown look like a sane liberal by comparison, and D legislators who seem hell bent on passing all sorts of new taxes, insane climate change rules, draconian anti-gun bills, and who knows what else. No word on whether they or the state’s “Health Authority” will also seek to require ALL school children or citizens to get a COVID “vaccine”, though given what we know about the jabs, any attempts at that would be brazen indeed. I did read that California is dropping their plan to require school children to get the COVID jab, so maybe there won’t be efforts at that in Oregon.

          An unelected bureaucrat at the state’s Department of Environmental Quality also decreed that sales of new gas powered vehicles will be banned in the state by 2035 ala California, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they seek to ban ALL gas powered vehicles for the masses like the WEF is calling for. Of course, THEY will be allowed to keep THEIR gas powered vehicles and private jets. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, “Let them drive EVs, ride bicycles, or take the bus.”

  4. Hey Eric, doesn’t your lovely state (cough, cough) also force you to have an inspection sticker, as well? You know, in case you thought you were not paying out enough in taxes…

  6. So essentially, we already own nothing. When does the “be happy” part start? Or has it already, with the massive influx of Fentanyl?

  7. These globalist technocrats who wish to force the masses out of owning a car also wish to build so-called 15 minute cities and forcing the masses into itty bitty apartments, claiming that it’s necessary to “Save the planet from climate change”. What kind of moron would believe that? Likely the same ones who believed that locking down the ENTIRE population and implementing mask and vaxx mandates “Saved lives”.

  8. It’s a shame “they” don’t work as hard on efficient management of the money we hand over, as they do on making up schemes for extraction of our money.

    Years ago the yearly auto license fees here in WA we out of control, a 10 year old rig could easily run $300 a year. The Commander’s horse trailer was $100. We still have the citizen initiative so we managed to pass the flat rate $30 license tab. “They” managed to drive those fees back up over the years – the “tab” may be $30 but there is the gross weight fee, agency fee, etc etc tacked on. Worse in the Puget Sound area counties they get added fees to pay for the toy trains aka light rail system which of course is billions over initial estimates and years behind schedule.

  9. But that’s what governments do. Hold a gun to your head and threaten to kill you if you don’t obey. In fact that’s practically all they do, except lie pathologically.
    Politician: One most adept getting the most people to believe the most preposterous lies the most often. Usually a sociopath if not a psychopath.

  10. I’m offended! Walz and company are guilty of blatant cultural appropriation, because they are obviously NOT Italian, yet they are adopting the practices of the Mafia! Actually, so many politicians and their enforcers are guilty of this! I want a coloring book!

    • Nunzio,
      Except the Mafia isn’t likely to run you out of biasness with their protection racket, and are more likely to actually protect your business.

    • Hi Nunzio

      I’ll have you know dat dis thing of ours would never stoop to the common crimes of the local gangs! We have more respect! Besides, we actually provide a service! I keep tellin’ Vini dat we don’t kill da goose dat lays the golden eggs, but hes too busy being lord mayor! Kids these days!

  11. Cost of government business is increasing. Government raises taxes. Taxpayers complain and back politicians who promise to undo taxes. Government workers, voting with their wallet, back the pro-tax party. They’re enough of a voting block to swing elections, so even if the anti-tax party wins, they make sure the new guy knows who’s in charge. The new tax is slightly watered down but doesn’t go away.

  12. Wow! So it will force the middle class and lower to own cars 10yrs old or older, maybe even upper-middle class.
    And when they do that, they will just change the law to ‘any’ car.
    What a disaster these people are.
    I’m very surprised it’s not ‘just for ICE’ cars.

  13. I think the next big grab will be individual housing. Even if you paid your mortgage, they will tax you out of your property. Then provide section 8 housing to the loyal voters. I’m sure coming to a blue state near you and me.

    • Hi Hans,
      It’s already here in Taxachusetts, our long ago paid for house – $33,500 in 1974 – has a higher property tax bill than our mortgage and tax payment combined back then. Presently $13k+ and only headed in one direction, as in up. What really gripes me is a lot of that must go to pay the inflated salaries and gold plated pensions of the local AGW’s.

      • You got it Mike. My 96 year old dad retired from Springfield PD 40 years ago, and he’s still collecting more than 80k a year in pension, plus gold plated health insurance.

    • Part of the 15 minute city agenda is to force people out of rural land into the big cities, confined into a 15 minute (walking) zone you can’t leave without special permission…own nothing no car, no money, live in a closet sized room, drugged so you are happy…..so you are easier to watch/control….then they want to go after the pure bloods in the zones….

      force people out of rural land into the big cities….using climate change as an excuse, or a ban on growing food, or some other fabrication…

      another plan floating around is undrip…the narrative is they say they are giving all the land back to the indigenous, with the UN managing the land….you are booted out….no more property…off to the 15 minute zone…

  14. ‘Under Walz’ proposal, the tax increases to 1.285 percent of 160 percent of the MSRP, or $626.80.’ — eric

    Sounds illegal, in principle, to tax 160% of value.

    Property tax valuations can be challenged if they are above market. The government doesn’t get to tax phantom value.

    If shot down by the courts, Walz could of course just hike the 1.285% tax rate instead. But he should be challenged on taxing 160% of MSRP.

    • The sad thing is, he won’t be challenged (at least in a serious way).

      What gets me, they do whatever the hell they want, and it sticks. And it happens fast. Now if someone tries to stop him or undo it later, it doesn’t seem to happen quickly. It takes up to a decade or so to get it stopped. And often, it gets put back quickly with the change of regime that supports it.

      For example, the pipeline project that goes nowhere. Four years of trump, it slowly works it’s ways through the permits, courts etc. First day of Biden, shut down, all undone, like in a day. Why is it Biden can just shut it down, when Trump can’t just say, build it and it happens? It just shows that liberal Democrats run the government all the time, no matter who is in the WH.

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