. . . and answering, you see a man in a suit,
holding an ID and a badge. You also notice the butt of a gun peeking
out of his jacket.
“I'm from the government. There's a
family down the street – father's been out of work, mother is sick,
and the kids are doing without. I'm here to collect money to help
support them.”
You're a bit surprised; you glance down
the street in the direction he's pointing, then at that gun, then
back to his face.
“Uh, well, yeah – okay. Umm, how
much?”
“17 cents.”
“17 cents?”
“Yes, 17 cents – is that a
problem?”
You notice that the inflection of his
voice rose as he got closer to the end of his question, challenging
your responses as if he thinks it possible you're going to cause
trouble.
“No, no, that's fine. But, ah,
listen – would it be okay if I just gave you 10 bucks? I mean, I
think I know who your talking about. Nice folks, kids come here to
play every now and then. I didn't know things were bad for them.”
“That's fine, sir.”
“Okay, here you go. Listen, aah –
I'm just kind of curious, you know . . . I mean, you're here in
person with all this, and it's only 17 cents. Seems like a lot of
trouble for such a small amount.”
“Yes, well, the amount doesn't
matter; we could just as easily have said 17 dollars instead of 17
cents if we decided that's what it was going to be. But the amount
isn't the point, doesn't have anything to do with why I'm here.”
“Umm, okay, sooo – what's the
point?”
“The point is it doesn't matter if
the amount is small or big; the point is you don't have any choice.”
“You mean that for 17 cents you'd,
what, arrest someone?”
“Not right away; we'd start by
seizing their accounts – take it right out of their bank account.”
“For 17 cents?”
“Like I said, sir – the amount doesn't have anything to do with it. The point is government has the right to take what it needs to do what it thinks it should.”
“For 17 cents?”
“Like I said, sir – the amount doesn't have anything to do with it. The point is government has the right to take what it needs to do what it thinks it should.”
“Well, I don't think many folks have
a real hard time paying some. I mean, we all know it costs money to
have an Army, that kind of thing.”
“That's true, sir, but there's still
the point that the government has to have the money to do what it has
to do.”
“But what if what the government wants to
do is, oh, I don't know, wrong in some way.”
“Call your Congressman, whatever; but
in the meantime, they still have to pay.”
“But what if they, you know, take
their money out of the bank, don't pay?”
“We can jail them, seize their property and sell it to pay off the amount. But if we don't get enough, they still have to pay what's left.”
“We can jail them, seize their property and sell it to pay off the amount. But if we don't get enough, they still have to pay what's left.”
“Wow. That's, uuh, pretty serious .
. .”
“Fighting the government is a serious
thing, sir.”
”What about the gun?”
“The gun?”
“Yeah; the gun you're carrying. What is that for?”
“We have to protect ourselves, sir.”
“Yeah; the gun you're carrying. What is that for?”
“We have to protect ourselves, sir.”
“You mean from people who might rob
you? I mean, what with you carrying that money around?”
“Well, I suppose that, too; but I never thought about it.”
“So if it isn't to protect yourself from being robbed, what else?”
“Well, sir, it isn't just robbers that can rob me. People who won't pay are robbing the government, too. We have to protect our interest.”
“Well, I suppose that, too; but I never thought about it.”
“So if it isn't to protect yourself from being robbed, what else?”
“Well, sir, it isn't just robbers that can rob me. People who won't pay are robbing the government, too. We have to protect our interest.”
“Ummm, you mean it's possible that
you'd pull your gun because someone wouldn't give you 17 cents, or
even 17 dollars?”
“Like I said, sir, the amount doesn't
matter. What matters is that you have to do what you're told when
the government says you have to pay. If someone resists, they have
to be forced, and we have the authority to use any means necessary to
make sure people cooperate, otherwise we'd have people by the
millions saying they aren't going to pay.”
“You're saying it's possible that I
could be shot if I don't pay?”
“Well, we'd have to pretty sure that
you mean to cause trouble, but yes sir, it does. You're not thinking
of causing any problems are you, sir?”
Now then, I don't think a single one of
you would be willing to do what our imaginary government man did in
this story, no matter what the collection might be for.
But there are a lot of you that have no
trouble at all with the government doing it for you . . .
