Protest with Tax Dollars?

It is obvious that our Congress and Presidents do not listen and no matter who we ellect they go against the will of the people. What if 60-90% of all Americans refused to pay 50% of their taxes in protest of government spending, unwanted wars, unwanted foreign spending, unwanted bailouts?

What could they do? Nothing I think. We the people would be voting with our dollars. They could not jail that many of us. Would this result in a coup? Perhaps new elections. What would really happen if we all could ever actually join together and pull something like this off?

What if anything would happen?

Oh they won't just forget about those tax dollars of yours.

Like the UK in the late 80's & early 90's (with Margaret Thatcher's "Poll Tax"), any campaign to withold tax will be met with the full force of the law.

And depending on your jurisdiction that'll mean your wages will be arrested, your social security benefits too, your car will be impounded, your business raided, your personal possessions confiscated and you might even end up in jail too.

And to do that the government will recruit an army of admin staff to recover the debts and you'll end up with much worse public services on offer if your dollars don't keep rolling on in.

That's not to put you off in any way. The British public, by witholding 30%+ of their Poll Taxes, brought down Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a series of protests which culminated in the notorious Poll Tax Riots in Trafalgar Square, London on 31st March 1990.

So go for it ... if you're brave enough !



[edit on 29-11-2009 by Ulala]

If 60%-90% of Americans refuse to pay taxes, the government will just print up that money to make the difference then go after those 60%-90% of Americans. Much of those people will be government workers and will be threatened with termination if they don't pay up, the others will be taken care of by men with more guns.

It's not like all the taxes we pay are making up for the government budget anyhow.