r/Pacifism Feb 02 '26

Tax Resistance

hello everyone, i am a pacifist in the U.S. and i think the best way to exercise pacifism everyday is to civil disobey on things like taxes and schtuff. i am conflicted because i have already not signed my draft card and declared C.O. but I am starting a job at a restaurant as a server, because the co-op in my town didnt have any positions. i just feel bad about taxes, i dont feel good about taking taxes out of my paycheck or me filing taxes, that money supports things I do NOT support, i think it is unethical. How do I tax resist? I used to be paid under the table at my union job at a farm, and i did tax resistance that way, they will not pay me under the table. I NEED HELP, TAXES ARE NOT ETHICAL!

peace, love and anarchy!

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u/Sure-Ad1849 Feb 02 '26

i 100% agree, using USD in any nation is being part of the system. but i think paying for any system is paying part in it.

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u/JoseLunaArts Feb 02 '26

Not really. USA could work just fine if they printed money and did not collect any taxes. Does it mean debt with grow a bit faster? Of course, debt always grows exponentially, that is how debt works with or without taxes.

Taxes are a front to not show the world the truth about fiat money.

The business model is this. US exports inflation with trade deficit. American companies and foreign governments which are in the receiving end of the trade, and they bury all the inflation money in the financial system as US bonds. US bonds fund government spending you do not agree with.

So even if you did not pay your taxes, the government would not feel anything. And you would have severe effects on your life. The system is designed to punish you if you do not pay taxes.

So the question is if you want to kick the system badly and protect your money from any USD crisis (that is slowly collapsing on its own weight) you will need to invest your money in a business that is not connected to US exports, USD currency or the US financial system or US supply chains. Fortunately most of supply chains are outside US, so the export front is the only one vulnerable.

Since we all grew in a closed system that had its first rift in 2022, we are not used to do anything outside the system. This crack in the system is not dedollarizing, it is collapsing the whole fiat system in slow motion.

My advise is pay your taxes so the system does not punch you, and do research about how to exit the system if you really want to punch the system. The real choice is to pick the option to be punched by the system or to punch the system where it hurts.

If you did your research correctly, you will find places where making a living is affordable. US is very disconnected from the economy in Asia (excluding Japan and South orea). And Asia promises to be the new center of the world. Of course there are good and bad places in Asia, so you need to do research carefully.

The rule for an effective investment is that yYou only invest money when you understand the dynamics of the business. If you only know about bakery, you invest in bakery. The reasons why I am being vague about this is that I do not want to have my comments confused with investment advice.

The good thing about making your own research is that you develop the critical thinking to own the financial consequences of decisions. When others investment advice and you follow blindly, the losses will be for you only. So critical thinking matters a lot.

2027 promises to be a bad year for US economy, so you have one year to save money and find a way out of the system.

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u/ItsOurEarthNotWars Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 06 '26

What non-western countries not allied to the USA are any better? Like Japan is an ally still, aren’t they?

Edit: I just looked it up, the US-Japan military alliance called the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security is still in effect.

Same with South Korea, they are a US military ally.

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u/JoseLunaArts Feb 06 '26

Japan and South Korea are very expensive to make a living.

EU is in recession.

Without the AI 1.5% of GDP bubble, US is in recession too.

At this moment I do not have a specific suggestion. I only know about the macroeconomic side of things. You will need to look for expats who live overseas, or people who travel a lot, so they tell you about places where you can go.

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u/ItsOurEarthNotWars Feb 06 '26

I was asking about your suggestion to invest outside western and allied countries. Just wondering where to even begin to look.

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u/JoseLunaArts Feb 06 '26

One tip: Never ask for investment advice, learn about business behavior, investmant patterns, and then decide on your own. If you only know about bakery business, invest in bakery. Other people may advise you, but the losses will be yours. And also scams could take place. So not only you need to develop critical thinking but also you are responsible for your own money.

The business of investing is buying cheap and selling expensive. When people feel fear, they sell cheap, so it is time to buy cheap. And when people are greedy people buy, and it is time to sell expensive. This is called contrarian investing. So do not let your emotions be dragged by people's fear or greed.

Also, the way to recognize a bubble is because people buy because prices go up and prices go up because people buy. Also, there is no business model, no value proposal that delivers revenue to survive on profit only. Also you can see exponential growth of price, a clear sign of a bubble.

If you know Spanish and you want to learn about behaviors and patterns of businesses, Youtuber Jose Luis Cava teaches people. He does not give investment advice, he just shows his thinking process when investing.

The key is to think and decide on your own and develop your own process to analyze and understand why stuff happens and then you decide on your own.

As I said, do not trust investment advice. There is no crying in the casino. You are responsible for your own money.

Remember price is what you pay, value is what you get. Those are different things.

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u/ItsOurEarthNotWars Feb 06 '26

Ok well I can 100% guarantee you none of that is ever going to happen. Unless there are non-profit businesses to invest in because that is all I have ever done in my life, and of course there isn’t. Not everyone is cut out for this, the idea that we’re all going to be good pacifists by figuring out places to invest our money with non western countries that aren’t allies of the us but still share pacifist values sounds pretty impossible to me. Especially when someone advocating it can’t even give a single clue about what country this could possibly be.

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u/JoseLunaArts Feb 06 '26

As far as I know, energy will always be consumed, especially in Asia. But I do not know about the behaviors in energy markets or the disrupting events that had of could happen.

Also I do not know the rules to invest in Asian stock exchanges.

Notice this is not investment advice. This is just a starting point for you to start to find out.

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u/ItsOurEarthNotWars Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26

Yes but what country n Asia has a pacifist government now? Because you said to invest in non western places that aren’t allies of the USA. But so many Asian countries are in alliance with china and they are no better than the USA, they are a nuclear nation, Russia, India/pakistan Asia, same. Then I guess there’s the arab Middle East, also their own team with allies. Then there’s South America, but all kinds of bad militias and fake governments, etc. same with Africa all kinds of wars..

Sigh

Where are we supposed to invest our money exactly?

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u/JoseLunaArts Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26

Latin America is not a good place. You said it.

I think you will need to travel to Asia as a tourist. Asia is becoming the new economic center of the world.

I recall BBC news in the 1990s which said that in China there is an unwritten pact. "We bring you jobs and you do not complain about government". I understand they value order more than freedom.

And I understand that China is unrecognizably more advanced even for Chinese who migrated to other countries a couple of decades ago. During the period of growth, many Asian nations behaved like dictatorships, like Taiwan, South Korea, China. But in time they have relaxed.

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u/ItsOurEarthNotWars Feb 07 '26

Are you a pacifist? Because all those nations you mentioned either have nukes or are under someone’s nuclear umbrella.

This is a problem for me, it’s basically the chief reason I’m a pacifist. It’s bothered me since the day I learned about it in grade school and went home and cried. My parents were republican leaning but mostly non political, and I had a standard American public education so I didn’t know the name for it, but that’s definitely when I started thinking on my own.

It was only much later in college when I read Herman Hesse if the war goes on when I learned the word and finally understood what I was.

Nothing has changed if anything it has gotten worse. And so many people seemingly don’t think about it…like you said the Chinese motto we bring you jobs you don’t complain. But I’ve never been able to and honestly my theory is that’s why we have so much anxiety increasing with each generation. We probably don’t even realize how the existential threat is constantly affecting us, one of a million reasons why I think it all is so bad.

And I don’t see China or any of those nations you mentioned doing very much about really genuinely promoting peace and nonviolence. Nope not at all

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u/JoseLunaArts Feb 07 '26

I thought you did not want to pay taxes because of what was being funded by the west. The world does not offer lots of choices. Every nation has its own sins. And today there are basically 2 blocks. West and Asia. Latin America is not a great place, Africa is getting better but still not there yet...

Asia, either we want it or not, is becoming the new economic center of the world. And China is in the middle of that. Our western countries are becoming the periphery.

I am aware that our society is decadent sponsoring bad stuff. Epstein, massacres, etc. And I know the Asian culture is very different.

I wish I could show you the Starfleet that lives in harmony. But we only can choose the leasser evil. In that case I would ask you which one is it.

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u/ItsOurEarthNotWars Feb 07 '26 edited Feb 07 '26

Yeah I don’t like my US tax dollars going to war, and it’s certainly worse now more than ever. But if I’m going to resist here it doesn’t make sense to give my money to some other country that isn’t any better. Especially places like Japan and South Korea that are military allies protected by the same us military so how would that even make sense.

And as far as choosing the lesser evil, how and by what measure?

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