No More Benefits? Fine. We’re Done Paying Taxes. And Working For You.

—Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash

The tax revolt starts here.

This administration claims it cares about us taxpayers. It wants the government to be more efficient and save us money.

Bullshit.

This same government is giving billions of our dollars to Elon Musk and other useless billionaires, like they’re handing out candy on Halloween. Yes, huge government contracts PAID FOR BY US. These guys are spending OUR money like DRUNKEN SAILORS and spending it on SEX (I’m looking at you Don) and ALCOHOL (I’m looking at you Hegseth).

We are not amused. WE pay taxes so YOU—as OUR government—can help US. So, that’s enough. We are done with you. We will withdraw our support. In stages.

No benefits? No taxes from us. And we know a-holes like Musk, who sponge off our hard earned money, have a slew of experts to evade taxes. We also know that you guys GIVE YOURSELF GIGANTIC TAX CUTS at OUR expense! You shelter your (unearned) money while greedily grabbing ours.

We’d Cut You Off Completely Today. But You Aren’t Just Thieves. You Are Thugs.

We also understand that you have police. You have armies. And you aren’t afraid to use them. You aren’t constrained by morality or conscience.

We understand that.

That’s why we aren’t asking for you to help us. We aren’t asking you to even stop doing what you are doing. You are like sharks-mindless heartless killing machines.

We are better than that. We care about each other. We care about our planet. We care about the other species that share this Earth with us.

We have been wasting our lives, being compliant and obedient, doing everything you asked us to. And now we are seeing the “reward.”

Okay. Here’s the deal.

1. Ending labor.
   Giant corporations are leeches. We will withdraw our support from them-both financial and labor. We won’t work for ExxonMobil to destroy the Earth our children will inherit. We won’t work for swindlers like Goldman Sachs. We won’t work for corporations like United Healthcare that profit by denying healthcare to poor people.
2. Ending taxes.
   We will stop paying taxes. Just try coming after us. MILLIONS of us. Once we are ready, and have MILLIONS committed to NOT PAYING MONEY to FASCISTS, we will do this. In the meantime, we will show our ire in lesser ways. Like sending in our taxes a day late and a dollar short-with a note warning what’s coming next.
3. Ending consumerism.
   Everything we produce (and it’s all produced by US; you just take it) damages the planet and waste our limited time. Our lives are finite and we should-and going forward, will-value our time more. What do we need? Food, healthcare, shelter and a few more things. Everything else is NOT WORTH spending nearly our entire lives in OFFICES and FACTORIES working for cruel selfish people. In the interest of protecting the Earth for our children, and in living lives of dignity we intend to slash our spending. By cutting spending and production by 80%–90%, we will slash CO2 emissions and other toxins that are ruining our climate.

What Will We Do Instead?

Finally, the scales have dropped from our eyes. We see clearly what we have been doing and we understand—for the first time—what matters.

We want to live our lives fully, in a world where we enjoy each others company. We will produce food, and medicine, and shelter for ourselves and for everyone. For free.

Why and how? The why is because we can and because we want to live in a world where people aren’t in constant fear of being hungry or homeless. We want to live in a society where people don’t waste their entire lives producing shiny plastic crap for each other and yachts for plutocrats. We want our children to live on a habitable Earth-not a dead planet.

How? We are already doing this. We already produce all the food, all the medicine, all the housing. We produce everything. We are simply removing the middlemen. Most of us will be doing different things than before. But for the first time, every bit of labor we do will be worthwhile-none of it for-profit.

And without paying jobs we will all be fine. Because we will all be working MUCH LESS, only doing worthwhile work, and getting everything we need to live. And as free people.

We will be doing only the right things, and we will be doing them better. Instead of destroying the planet to maximize profits-as agribusiness does—we will farm the land carefully and sensibly. Guided by people who understand soil, and conservation and ecology.

We will commit ourselves to ending hunger and homelessness and ensuring that sick people get the care they need. We will operate a society that we are thrilled to live in.

What About Our Stuff?

We can live with much less stuff. We will happily trade in our boxes of crap from Amazon to sleep late in the morning, to never worry about bills, to know where our next meal is coming from. And to have days that are our own.

Nobody was offering us this. Nobody seems to have even asked the right questions. Like: why are we doing this? Do we need to do this?

Could we do something different? We were only offered short menus of capitalism, communism, democracy, totalitarianism, etc. We saw that capitalism and democracy morphs into fascism.

We decided we didn’t like the choices. We decided to order off the menu.

What About the Revolt?

We understand that the government is brutal and merciless. But also stupid and, ultimately, powerless.

First of all, they need enforcers. Police, military, ICE, and others. But those people are people. They are our family, spouses, friends, neighbors. We intend to talk with them, remind them that we are people and that we have relationships. And remind them that WE are more important than some violent shmuck who signs their paycheck.

We will do this so that, when the time comes, many of the enforcers will refuse to shoot. This has, in fact, happened many times in various societies throughout history.

And we will coordinate with each other in acts of resistance through withdrawal of cooperation. This will escalate until the old cruel civilization collapses (although it is already collapsing on its own) and then we will build the just and kind society we truly want.

Ultimately, we will not work for our oppressors, nor will we pay them taxes. Instead, we will be LIVING.

For now, I urge you to sign a strike card at GeneralStrikeUs.com. Also, please check out WeAreSaners.org and consider joining. The Saners are committed to harnessing nonviolent noncooperation to prevent climate collapse and build a better civilization.