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Alternative Column: The letter to the Hampton Chronicle concerning the assessor's right to enter our homes was long overdue. Franklin County claims a right to assess the value of our homes, inside and out, in order to establish a fair property tax rate.
I understand the need for taxes in order to maintain infrastructure here. But like taxes on the federal level, I doubt the original intent included funding for such a broad hijacking of responsibility from its citizens.
On the federal level, since Brian D. Miller's letter mentioned federal constitutional authority, tariffs were the only legal method for funding the federal government before the Sixteenth Amendment. Various other schemes were tried until Woodrow Wilson decided to make the world safe for democracy. Our entry into World War I had a lot of opposition. But purveyors of unlimited government found a way or two around that.
The amendment passed in 1913 established a progressive income tax. And the Federal Reserve Act created a private bank that could conjure up paper money at will. Our participation in WWI was enabled by these evasions of natural rights and is a paean to Wilson's evil democracy. These two acts sent us on our way to what H.L. Mencken described as, “... a sort of advance auction of stolen goods.”
All this hubbub over outside influence in elections would be nothing but traffic noise if not for the loot to be stolen through unlawful (the same as unconstitutional, in a literal sense) doling out of favors or cash through the voting booth.
The Federal Reserve works in a slightly different way. As money is created and put into circulation, our savings are depleted by the decrease in the scarcity of cash, the same as a big corn crop drives down the price of corn. The end result is wealth taken from ordinary people and put into the hands of powerful elites. Show me a law or tax that doesn't favor one over another. Who is to lobby for the bleeding individual when the law makes exceptions for theft?
The progressive income tax is an example of one of the Ten Prerequisites for World Communism spelled out in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. It is a means to equalize the wealth of individuals. Franklin County's method of funding county government does essentially the same thing.
With the assessor's demand to enter and search our homes, any improvements we make to our property elicit a penalty of higher taxes. We would all like to see an idyllic, clean, and comfortable county. Is a penalty for improving our property a good way to accomplish this? How about taxing every lot by square foot and all farmland by soil type as is laid out by Kermit Voy's analysis of soil productivity?
Mr. Miller's point that the searches would be unconstitutional cannot be disputed. But that argument is an anachronism now. The same point could be made regarding 90% of federal spending. Unfortunately, the vote, purchased with sophisticated propaganda that makes us think all this federal redistribution has a long term good, is more powerful than the piece of paper our rulers choose to vow to uphold, and then ignore.
Any opinions on this column are welcome at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com or through a letter to the editor. The blog is updated almost daily at www.alternativebyfritz.com. Try it. You’ll like it.

Hampton Chronicle

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Hampton, IA 50441
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