I’ve picked up some flotsam and jetsam that have come bobbing by my raft as I veer off course whilst surfing this Internet.
- An interesting article from author Thomas E. Woods, Jr. on What the Warfare State Really Costs.
Not just the tax dollars that are vacuumed out of our pockets and shot into Iraqis — but “opportunity costs” like the diversion of talent toward destructive aims and the resources tied up in maintaining a warfare state that otherwise could be used for useful purposes.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, during it used (in dollars) $7.62 trillion in capital resources. In , the Department of Commerce estimated the value of the nation’s plant and equipment, and infrastructure, at just over $7.29 trillion. In other words, the amount spent over that period could have doubled the American capital stock or modernized and replaced its existing stock.
- The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration takes a look at taxpayers who have sideline businesses that always seem to lose money and speculates that many of these are essentially hobbies that are being reported as businesses for tax reasons. Well, of course, but the report also has some numbers, if you’re curious.
- The Keene Free Press has published part three of Dave Ridley’s jail memoirs from his brief imprisonment after trying to petition some IRS employees for redress of grievances. (See and for parts one and two.)
- Joe Jenkins, of the United Kingdom tax resistance group Peace Tax Seven, is releasing a feature-length documentary about the group.