Upsetting Thieves with Truth

Years ago, long before I had a blog, I had a retail shop. I hated robbing my customers in the name of “sales tax”, but if I didn’t, armed goons would have come and murdered me. Insanity, I know!

But every time I wrote the check to the town’s “tax” collector, on the memo line I wrote something like “sales ‘tax’ extortion for August“. The “tax” collector called to question me about that– or to whine– a few different times. It drove her mad.

I wasn’t rude to her, I simply said I didn’t appreciate being recruited to rob my customers on her behalf– that if she wanted to rob them she should go do it herself.

She would object, “but it isn’t robbery, it’s a tax!” Same thing, I’d tell her.

She would sputter, “but don’t you want police and paved roads?” No, I really don’t. There’s nothing the stolen money buys that I want that bad. Can I stop robbing my customers now?

She actually showed up in person once, just to get me to stop writing that on the checks. Why did it even matter to her? I paid the extortion, but I never stopped editorializing on the memo line.