Gary North

Jan. 25, 2011

A major secret of successful taxation is to make it painless. To do this, taxes must be hidden. Governments tax output up the entire supply chain. The sellers collect the tax. The public does not perceive this.

We need sellers to blow the whistle. "The government forces us to be tax collectors."

This British video gets this idea across: we are taxed all day. It does not get across the idea that this is done through value-added taxes on production, all along the supply chain.

Persuasion is more than numbers and graphs. We need video and audio to focus on the central issue and drive it into the viewer's mind. Humor does this.

The Web makes it possible to get out a message without paying for air time. Word of mouse takes over.

Creative people should put their minds to work on the tax issue. Once a video is online, anti-tax organizations can promote them. Or maybe they can fund an upscale version. Here is a really choice one. It was expensive to produce.

Some Canadians also get it, as you will see.

Sometimes low budget beats upscale. Example: a Republican lady who decided to get out the message on Obama used a super-cheap webcam to produce a corker. So far, it has had over 700,000 hits. She rides the black welfare queen stereotype like a someone in the World Rodeo League. Note: subtlety is not part of bronco-riding. Take a look (no embed option).

I end with a video that is not deliberately a spoof. It might as well be.

The public needs to lose faith in the wisdom of the governments that impose taxes. Humor is a way to undermine this faith. It reminds voters that they are carruying a lot of dead weight. It does not get better over time. It gets worse.