"Starve the Beast"

The Market Ticker ^ | Jun 30 2009 | Karl Denningger

[truthkeeper]

You are right. I've been doing this for a few months now and I know several others who have been as well.

If everyone did we might have some ammunition.

[boxlunch]

This should be the new Republican party platform. Great post!

[sionnsar]

It’s not so bad, although I need a new car soon. It will not be an Obama or union car though.

"New" or "replacement"? I run my Japanese cars to 250k miles. Approaching 160k on the car I bought with 56k on it.

[mojitojoe]

Note that it is unlawful to use your W4 to intentionally under-withhold, but you are in fact not obligated to pay one more dime in tax than you actually owe. There is nothing wrong with adjusting withholding to match (as close as you reasonably can) your actual tax obligation.
___________
I can assure you if 50 million claimed enough to pay nothing and at the end of the year just didn’t file, it would bring them to their knees. Even better is 200 million did it. Talk about cleaning up DC. Instant results.

[madison10]

Get rid of LAWYERS!!!!

Wouldn't do that, we might need them. They aren't all criminals.

[Costumed Vigilante]

I know you cannot be super specific in your methods, but you provide some tips to the rest of us in how to do this?

Everyone's situation is different, and the weakness you can find in your particular situation varies with the individuals you engage. Generally:

1) Instigate phone conversations regarding trivial matters.

2) Insist on written records of those phone conversations.

3) Get individual supervisor and minion names, and ask for them specifically when beginning a "harassment" campaign.

4) Ask the same questions over and over.

5) Deny receiving any written communication, and demand it be resent.

6) Send registered letters. Demand registered letters.

7) Ask how communications should be addressed for legal actions (law suits).

8) Get a lawyer. Get your lawyer to send official requests for documentation which is either difficult or impossible for the agency to supply.

9) Become familiar with Small Claims Court. File, file, file.

10) Threaten law suits because you are being victimized because you are young/old/black/Native American/female/gay (alternate and combine). Demand civil liberty special rights because you are young/old/black/Native American/female/gay.

11) Register as a Democrat, and get involved in Democrat politics. Lie. Subvert them from inside.

12) Attack from the Left - let them know that they are not doing enough for women/minorities/illegal aliens. And you demand more. Much more.

A verbis ad verbera

[GOPJ]

Hit companies that are primarily liberal.

Just making our lives miserable isn't enough.

Don't send our kids to liberal colleges.

No money for PBS, NPR, Liberal newspapers...

Stop giving to all liberal charities. Zip.

No trips to Disney - it's a liberal group.

Eat out in local restaurants - most small business people are conservative.

Let's make this hard on liberals not hard on us.

[Safrguns]

The beast isn’t fed from what we spend.
It is fed from what we invest in IT and pay to it directly with our tax dollars.

By boycotting business in general, we would be choking the very engine that can destroy the beast.

I clean carpets for a living...

If I am boycotted, how am I going to add any more voice against the fed than what I already have?

The fed wants people like me dependent upon people like them. This plan would help them in that goal.

Please don’t boycott me.

Do just the opposite... spend MORE money with privately owned business... INCREASE YOUR EXPENSES to lower your bottom line... which is really what the beast takes from you.

[Squantos]

Karl reads FR or common sense is upon the masses .....:o)

[redpoll]

Who is John Galt?

[hiredhand]

...their IP address could be demanded by the Secret Service from FR owner and they would be investigated and prosecuted.

The U.S. Secret Service can "demand" all they want. Until they get a court issued subpoena, they can pound sand with all the other requesters of such things.

As for actually obtaining the data, you and everybody else here should be running TOR.

http://www.torproject.org/

[appleseed]

I’ve always had my tax deductions figured to where I only had to pay a small amount in April. But this last April I got freakin slammed. If I’m considered rich then we’re in bigger trouble than anyone realizes.

I usually try to buy things locally. Use the feed store to buy stuff for the ponds and property. All I have to do is take in a weed or something growing in my pond to them and they give me the right thing to take care of it. Go to the guy that owns a butcher shop in a small grocery store for meat. Buy all the essentials at 2 local gun shops rather than going to the chain sporting goods stores.

Starving the Beast is something that needs to be done. This Govt. is completely out of control and they’re moving so fast to destroy us that we usually don’t know the impact of how hard they have hit us until the damage is done. Once the details do come out, the news is filled with the next crisis that Govt. has come up with a solution for. It gets worse every day, and something needs to be done.

[hiredhand]

It gets back to what I said about the Federal Government starting a financial siege. It's about time people acted in a CORRECT response to what's happening. I've said all along that if those who produce simply don't buy ANYTHING extra other than the bare necessities, that they can outlast the Federal Government. Because the Federal Government's shortage of cash is nothing compared to their shortage of TIME. As far as the life cycle of the nation is concerned, they're effectively out of time. If those citizens who actually produce something stock enough supplies to buy as absolutely little as possible for several months...and enough people did this, it would devastate certain industries.... mainly because of the way that JIT (Just In Time) inventory management works. JIT works really well under continuous demand, and brief periods of low and high demand which are spaced fairly close together. But the one thing it doesn't react favorably to is a big slump for a long time. It takes too long to react at the back end where production occurs.

I'll say this much though... if this catches on, and it is effective, watch out for some very nasty attempted action in return from the direction of the current administration. They won't take kindly to this. Not that we give a damn, but I'm just saying! :-)

[smokingfrog]

After July 4th, don't buy anything you don't absolutely need.

(Of course that excludes guns and ammo.)

[ponygirl]

I bought a pressure canner from my locally owned Ace Hardware and am learning to can vegetables I buy at the Farmer's Markets (we have two markets close by my house). I also buy California produce in bulk at Costco. So far I've put away green beans, blueberry syrup, peach slices and swiss chard. Next I'll be doing tomato sauces - the kind of stuff that you can stretch over several meals. It's actually kind of fun.

Using the green beans as an example, I'm averaging 19 cents per 14 oz can versus 75 cents per can purchased at Costco. (And I won't have to worry about my food having questionable stuff from China in it.) Of course, I'm not including my up-front costs of jars and the canner in that, but all that stuff is an investment that will be reusable eventually.

This is funny though - the last time I was at Ace buying jars, I overheard one of the stockboys say to another, "What is up with all the canning stuff flying off the shelves all of a sudden?"

[ponygirl]

Maybe small business owners could consider giving discounts to people who pay in gold or silver? Just an idea. And anytime anyone does this, the news media immediately picks it up.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Direct your snail mail to the companies as to why you're not buying their product.

With a cc: to the politician...

[jellybean]

I have the Atlas Shrugged/Starve the Beast ping list. If anyone would like to join, let me know.