The essence of the "offshore" philosophy is that you can directly control your own tax "obligations" by careful planning and the application of privacy strategies.
It is a response to the obvious waste of effort one can engage in when trying to "change" the system. You have a choice, you can spend 10 years of your precious life campaigning for lower taxes - and fail miserably. Or you can spend 10 weeks educating yourself on how you can personally minimize your tax - while maximizing your freedom, and succeed. This is called direct action - as discussed elsewhere at this website.
However, it must be human nature - but there is always a constant flow of people suggesting new tax initiatives - and launching public information campaigns in the hope of winning support.
You have the campaign for a sales tax to replace the income tax in the USA. In Australia there is a campaign to introduce a "debit" tax - which taxes the movement of monies out of the banking system. You have the proponents of VAT/GST style taxes. And at the "lower" end of the tax reform movement, you have those who are trying to flatten tax and remove the progressive nature of tax scales.
This is not new of course. History is replete with tax reformers. One of the most famous in the US was probably Henry George. His idea was that land should not be owned by individuals, but by the state - and "leased" to the citizens. In other words, a land tax.
Then there was Social Credit theory - as promoted by Major CH Douglas in the UK and Commonwealth in the 30s. His tax ideas were quite revolutionary - he was quite sure we could do away with it entirely, and replace it with a national "dividend" - or monetary payment to each and every citizen.
It is interesting that the two latter ideas - by far the most unusual - arose out of the era known as the "Great Depression". Unusual times lead to unusual proposals. And we're approaching "unusual" times again - particularly if the global economy goes into a major recession. There is no doubt that if such a thing occurs - then a chorus of voices will be raised, calling for reforms to do with the money and tax systems.
So, to get in quick, here's my humble contribution. This idea is guaranteed to cause major arguments, and could even get you tarred and feathered if you suggest it to anyone. So keep it to yourself - or at least, amongst those of like mind.
My idea is original - in that I came up with it myself, but no doubt someone else has had a similar idea. I don't intend to campaign for this idea, and have no illusions that it could ever become a reality. I simply offer it as "fodder" for an after dinner discussion when you're among freedom-loving friends!
Okay, here it is: Make a change in the law that says only tax payers can vote.
By taxpayers, I mean those who earn their money and pay tax - not those who receive tax money and pay tax on that.
I'm sure you can see the ramifications. No politicians would be able to vote (as their pay comes out of tax monies), no welfare recipients would be able to vote (they are also tax receivers), and no government workers would be able to vote (as their wages all come out of the tax take).
As you can see, this idea has grown out of the maxim: no taxation without representation - but has been reversed: "no representation without taxation"!
Now, I'm quite sure that if ONLY tax payers were allowed to vote, then the tax rate would come down drastically.
Oh well, even hardened offshore advocates like me are allowed to "dream" once in a while!
[DTF's note: Though it would be an improvement, this isn't particularly radical, nor does it address or solve the underlying issues. A truly radical idea would be for ALL "taxes" - institutionalized theft and robbery - to be abolished. Of course the numerous parasites who live off this "system" won't want that to happen, hence we simply figure out ways as individuals to un-"tax" ourselves.]
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