After giving Claire Wolfe a plug in ’s Picket Line, I’m delighted to report that she’s returned the favor, with a big show of support for this site on her blog.
As a result, there’ve been a lot more visitors here in the last few days, and a lot more email to respond to. Welcome! I’ve put some excerpts from these emails below:
I admire your thought process. Just earlier this year I found myself thinking “what can I do to earn less next year?” as I contemplated what my tax dollars were doing. I’ve not made much headway, but finding your site enables me to begin again. Thank you.
Wow! Thanks! That’s fantastic news!
Might we call your tactics “civil-financial disobedience?”
After some rooting around on clairewolfe.com I noted that in some circles, tactics like mine are being debated under the name “economic secession.”
For instance, this article suggests the tactic, this article criticizes it, and this one responds to the criticism.
It’s possible that if enough affluent Americans stopped participating in the economy, the politicians would sit up and notice. It probably would not have worked much if at all in a Gandhian context; the British Raj’s sleep would have stayed quite blissfully untroubled if a few million poor Bengalis had decided to quit, and hence to starve.
Gandhi’s writings on tax resistance can be found in the book We Won’t Pay!: A Tax Resistance Reader.
Actually a big hunk of Gandhi’s program was in fact “economic secession” of this sort. The salt march was all about encouraging people to (illegally) replace their taxed consumption of imported salt with untaxed domestic salt. Similar was the Gandhian insistence that everyone in the independence movement should wear (and should personally take time every day to help create) homespun cloth rather than wear imported fabric (imported from Britain and taxed). The boycotts and pickets of liquor stores and opium dens were only partially aimed at the intoxicating effects of the drugs, but were also directed at the British monopoly on alcohol and opium.
The raj was worried enough that the viceroy sent troops out who beat people senseless just for harvesting salt.
I’ve said elsewhere why I’m not a Gandhian pacifist, but I was very much influenced by his insistence that the way to throw off the chains of the tyrant is by withdrawing the everyday economic support it thrives on.
I am very glad that you have taken this step. I wish more people would do the same instead of waving their posters and chanting those silly chants. You keep up your end of the bargain and I will do my best to keep up mine. (I love that answer in your FAQ)
Thanks. I’m on it!
