An informative article titled “New underground economy” from the Washington Times, provides data points that demonstrate the growth of the underground “black” economy. It reveals that the public is naturally gravitating towards an agorist way of commerce, based over economic oppression and distrust of the state.
The article highlights a significant rise of “unbanked” households, seeking financial privacy from unwarranted actions by the state. Federal, state and local tax revenues are decreasing, due to the increase of personal transactions “off the books.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) released a report last week concluding that 7.7 percent of U.S. households, containing at least 17 million adults, are unbanked (i.e. those who do not have bank accounts), and an “estimated 17.9 percent of U.S. households, roughly 21 million, are underbanked” (i.e., those who rely heavily on nonbank institutions, such as check cashing and money transmitting services). As an economy becomes richer and incomes rise, the normal expectation is that the proportion of the unbanked population falls and does not rise as is now happening in the United States.
People also avoid having bank accounts because they are vulnerable to asset seizure, judgments, levies, etc. Increasingly, bankers and others who provide financial services are forced by governments to spy and snitch on their own customers, and this is a real turnoff for many people, which causes them to find other ways of maintaining financial privacy.
I think this is a good indication of the spread of agorism and the inverse relationship it has with the state. The beauty of this is the fact it’s not a movement, this is occurring as a natural reaction against the states growing oppression. I would say an overwhelming majority of the people involved have never heard of agorism, but we all share a common enemy, the state. This organic rise of agorism, also coincides with the growth of activists subscribing to the philosophy in the present liberty movement.
Many studies have shown that when people believe the taxes they are required to pay are reasonable and the political leaders tend to spend their tax dollars wisely, tax compliance rises, and vice-versa. In the United States, there is increased evidence that many tax dollars are not being spent wisely and are often used to pay off political cronies.
Over the past year in particular, the public has become aware that many in Washington who advocate higher taxes and argue that everyone has a responsibility to pay taxes are themselves not complying with the tax laws and regulations.
When you have a secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (the tax writing committee) accused of cheating on their taxes, it greatly undermines the moral authority of the tax collectors, making the common citizens feel like chumps and, hence, much more willing to try to legally avoid or illegally evade taxes themselves.
These two rising vectors will further increase agorism in the social dynamic by social interaction on the web and direct actions publicly. The philosophically aware agorist explaining the basics to those already practicing it, will help demystify and introduce the concept.
The summation of the article, contends that the ever oppressive and corrupt state, conversely gives rise to the black market.
The evidence is unambiguous; governments cannot increase tax compliance and decrease the size of the underground economy by ever increasing and more onerous regulations.
It is no accident that those governments that allow their citizens a high degree of personal and financial liberty, including financial privacy, and spend taxpayer dollars wisely, honestly and competently, have much smaller underground sectors than corrupt and oppressive governments. Washington, take note.
The public is detaching from the statist mindstate incrementally, awakening to a paradigm shift of liberty from the state. There is no need to protest and hit the streets, just invest that energy into direct action in counter-economics that don’t empower the state.
Agora! Anarchy! Action!
If the statement about unbanked persons going to get bank accounts as a society becomes wealthier is true, then it ought to follow that as unemployment rose above 20% in 2009 and persists above that level that the number of unbanked persons would increase. (See shadowstats dot com for unemployment old school.)
The article mentions people rejecting their tax “obligations” because scum like Tim Geithner evade taxes with impunity. It neglects to mention that people are unhappy with trillions in bailouts for banking gangsters and big corporations like GM.
It is a welcome development. Thanks for finding this article, Harold.
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