Originally Published in May 2018 By R. Nelson Nash

The month of April has come to a close — the month that Americans have a deadline to file their income tax report — or get an extension to file at a later date. What a vast subject we have to ponder and ruminate about! How in the world did all this nonsense come to be?
It all came from faulty fundamental assumptions. The Bible is the story of man’s relation to his maker. It is obvious that we did not create ourselves. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus is teaching at “The Sermon on The Mount.” (Matthew 5-7) and is essentially teaching us how God made us. It could be considered as our “owner’s manual.” When you buy an automobile, the manufacturer provides a Owner’s Manual

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14).

When you come to a fork in the road and take the wrong one then the only way to get to your desired destination is to go back to your point of error and get on the right one. Human beings have a built-in nature to take the wrong road. It’s because — down deep in his soul — mankind wants to be god! God is a jealous God. He won’t put up with that behavior. Mankind can’t get that fact straight in his brain.
Our blessings in life do not originate from government action. Our blessings come from God and through peaceful interactions with one another. ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

Government is force! Government is coercion! All it can legally do is restrain or inhibit wrongdoing by evil actions of people.

So why do people look to government for sustenance and dependence? There is a tremendous element of dependence in the act of worship. You will worship that on which you are dependent. Christians say they worship God — but suggest that we terminate a government program — like Social Security — and they cannot conceive of life without it. Their actions and words do not correlate.

So, in our pondering and ruminating how does all this fundamental stuff apply to our subject at hand — Income Taxes and Social Security?
In our country’s history there have been a few instances of an income tax, but it became a permanent fixture in 1913. Three horrible things occurred during that year — Income Tax — direct election of Senators – and the Federal Reserve Act.

There is no way to really understand the rationale behind the idea of income tax in just a few lines. For the best treatise on it I encourage you to read The Income Tax: Root of All Evil by Frank Chodorov. This is essential knowledge for anyone who wants to maintain sanity.
And now, we come to the Federal Reserve Act. Before we go any further, have you noticed that politicians and government bureaucrats change the meaning of words to help preserve their “hidden agenda?” The Federal Reserve Bank is not Federal. There is no reserve, and it is not a bank It is a cartel of member private banks that have secured a monopoly privilege that no one else can engage in. There are a number of books that address this con-game, but I think the best on is The Secrets of The Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins. This, too, is essential knowledge.

Lastly, there is the direct election of Senators. Before this act Senators were elected by State Legislators. States had much more power under that system. That’s all gone now.

Before we go any further we need to agree on a few absolutes. Otherwise you need to stop reading this article. You are wasting your valuable time.

TANSTAAFL. That’s an acronym that I ran across over sixty years ago — There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!

Yet, we are bombarded every day by advertising using the word “free.” And based on observed behavior I think there are people who actually believe this nonsense. Maybe it is an attempt to justify their irrational purchase of something.

Comic strips are one of our best sources of real education. Blondie by Chic Young is a good example. It’s late February and Tudbury’s Department Store is having their clearance sale. Blondie comes home from shopping and with great enthusiasm announces that “I just bought a dress that was marked $100 and it was now on sale for only $50. It was such a good deal that I bought another one for the same price! Dagwood, I just saved you $100!!!” That can be classified as “Blondie Bumstead economics.”

Extend this type of reasoning to its’ ultimate conclusion and you will see that Americans buy things they don’t need — with money they don’t have — to impress folks they don’t know — who could care less.

Another unassailable fact — Customers pay for all the costs incurred by a seller (plus his hoped-for margin of profit) for the goods and/or services of the provider. Without customers no goods or services happen. One of my dear friends down through the years is Roland Nelson. He was an independent retail druggist. I remember well an extended session with his employees where he was teaching them that “I’m not your boss. Our customers are your boss. Every bit of your income is coming from them. Don’t ever forget it. Think about it every day!”

This creates the groundwork for recognizing another huge lie — Corporate Income Taxes. Corporations do not pay income taxes! The collect taxes in the form of their sales price. A manufacturer of a good requires labor, raw material, rent, administrative personnel, sales, advertising, financial services, and perhaps a host of other expenses including accounting services which estimates the corporate income taxes that the government will extort from him. He has to do all these things in order to earn the hoped-for margin of profit.

There is only one way that he can recover all these costs (which includes the expected income taxes he will incur) and that is in the price of his finished product.

THE CUSTOMER ALWAYS PAYS THE COST OF EVERYTHING. TANSTAAFL

I know this a burden on your mind to ponder such truths and spending a lot of time on it will wear you out. I don’t want this to happen to you. This is going to take a long time. We are going to have to recognize the lies we live with and take these confrontations with truth in small doses.

So, let’s quit until next month and we will continue to ponder and ruminate about taxes, income taxes and Social Security.