An-Cap Purists

Oh what a tangled web….

The purists come out in force; but how pure are they, really?

Do you use Federal Reserve Notes?  It is possible to live life without doing so, barter is still legal.  Do not complain of the difficulty, after all you are a purist.  Being pure isn’t easy.

Do you use the services of a bank?  Virtually every bank would go belly up if not for direct support from the federal government.  You are benefiting from this subsidy – and you don’t have to use the services of a bank to survive.

Do you pay taxes in any form?  I admit some might be difficult to avoid (sales taxes, perhaps); however it is not too difficult to structure your life such that your earnings are below the limit for income tax purposes.  Earning more than this could be considered voluntarily contributing to the funding of aggression.  Don’t equate the state to a thief in this instance – the thief is a random event, whereas with income taxes it is a certainty that you will pay the state if you earn over X.

Walk on the sidewalk?  Drive on a street?  Is it really necessary to leave the house these days?  With the internet and UPS, everything can be delivered to you.  Too hard?  Come on, you are a purist.  Who said purity was easy?

I haven’t run the numbers and don’t care to, however I will guess many people who take a social security check pay more in taxes (in all forms) than they receive in social security – in the current year, not as an accumulation of prior years.  So just because someone takes social security doesn’t necessarily mean he is taking someone else’s money- it could very well be his own.

For many who abhor the initiation of aggression, and view all state actions as this, it is a struggle at times to determine where to draw the line.  There are certainly some black and white issues, but most issues that get the purists spun up are gray – and gray is where we live.  I find it hard to get spun up about gray.