Christine Spalding
Critical Thinking
Professor Kevin J. Browne
November 29, 2002

Your Money Or Your Life

Sheldon Richman's argument is based on the moral issue of the income tax and why this tax should be abolished.

Richman presents us with facts and claims of how our government is flawed by forcing the American worker to give up a portion of his income, though no one actually consented. Along with surrendering a percentage of our earned income, we must allow them to have access to our personal financial records of the exact amount one earns. The tax enforcers accomplish this through lies and deceit. Both which preceded and followed the Sixteenth Amendment.

The American wage earner is "commandeered", says Richman, by this taxation, and if you do not, the government will institute a fine or even have you imprisoned. His conclusion is this is theft and unjust.

Richman's other basic argument's for abolishing the income tax is as follows:

1.The state demands a sum of our money, and refusing to give it up is punishable.
2.It is a voluntary system.
3.Repercussions for not volunteering.
4.It is wasteful.
5. It illustrates the corruption and out of control spending by the government.
6.Lawmakers need a never-ending flow of cash
7.The income tax is the only tax allowed that corrupts society.
8.The income tax is a blank check for the government.
9.The income tax makes you poorer.

Richman presented clear and convincing arguments for his reasons to abolish the income tax. Richman also makes an interesting comparison of the government being like a mugger who "occasionally shines his victim's shoes", and a membership to a club has access to certain amenities only if the dues are paid, it not one is not allowed in, not arrested. By the same token, a property owner who is not "actively using the government's services" still owes the taxes.

This argument of why the income tax should be abolished by Richman is deductively strong. Mr. Richman used statistical evidence as well as causal arguments through out.

This book is one of the best written on the subject of abolishing the income tax.

As Americans, we have been taught that paying our fair share of income taxes is the American way and our patriotic duty. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the income tax is 100% against the American way and violates our very own Constitution.

This book exposes the complete history of the income tax, and its tyrannical, Gestapo like collection agency, the IRS. The IRS is the most feared organization American has ever known and they operate outside the bounds of the Constitution that is supposed to protect us from tyranny in government. What happened? Read this book to find out all of the sordid details.

Not only is this book a history lesson, but more importantly, it shows that we can survive without the income tax as we did for more than one hundred and fifty years before this form of communism was implemented into our lives.

If every American read this book, there would be a revolution by tomorrow morning.

Sheldon Richman's concise and informative book, Your Money Or Your Life, explains how the income tax is one of the greatest threats to the liberty of the American people ever devised. By making our employers surrogate federal tax collectors, most Americans don't feel the pain because they really don't know what they're losing. But even worse, as Richman points out, by having access to our paychecks, the government can tap into an almost limitless pool of money to expand its size and scope. We need to scrap the income tax and replace it with a tax on consumption.