Regular contributer IMarvinTPA posted over at his LiveJournal an intriguing calculation in a post titled How to scale our national debt to something people understand. He makes the assumption that we could rip the national debt to $0 in less than 4 years — if we got rid of every budgetary line item except for the IRS for collections. Imagine the savings over your lifetime, the lifetimes of your children and their children, if this debt was paid off.

But it isn’t the debt problem that really would be the amazing part — imagine society without the impact of the Federal government destroying 40% of the wealth of the nation. I can envision it right now.

I envision a union of individual and unique States that each acted like a very small country. None of these States would be very powerful in terms of an international body of force, but all the residents of these States would be powerful in terms of their ability to trade with other residents of other Nation-States in the world. Without the Federal bureaucracy, they would be free to investigate what their best markets would be — some would see marijuana production as their most profitable item, others might look to returning to selling their wares on the open market unencumbered by embargoes and tariffs that hit us as hard they they hit foreign competitors. Some might realize a new direction in terms of farming or food production because their residents are now free to compete without the federal subsidies that protect a few farmers at the expense of the many.

I envision a day when the Federal military is turned off — the door shut, the key tossed down the incinerator, the machinery sold to other Nation-States to salivate over the thought of world domination that has been impossible to keep for more than a few decades in all of human history. I picture the boys and girls of parents back home being returned unharmed, ready to get back to work in the market to produce a new supply (lowering prices for all) of goods and also creating a new demand (creating incentive to make more supply) for goods, too. I think of every family watching their disposable income jump 20% or more because of the lack of financing for the U.S. terrorist acts around the world that this Nation-State has done over 2 generations or mroe. I think about how many lives will be saved in the world because our terrorists won’t be free to mandate force over innocents who live under the force of their own terrorist dictators, as we do.

I think of how amazing it will be that our FDA would be prevented from dictating what we can do with our bodies, and what we can sell to others who may want to help or harm their own bodies. Medicine prices would plummet as the residents would work with their own doctors to try to find solutions to their medical problems. Even better, the USDA would be closed and residents would not keep killing themselves by following an anti-life food pyramid that forgets that fat and protein is good and starches and sugars are bad. You’d even be able to buy that healthy and tasty unpasteurized milk that is illegal in most communities because of federal mandates.

We’d see education back in the hands of the parents rather than in the hands of the suited men in Washington. Without their power of spending, the teacher’s unions would collapse as standards would fall to the local communities to decide what should be taught. Without federal requirements on public education, we might even see some communities toss the public school daycare-workers (ahem, teachers) get shown the city border and asked not to trespass again. I’d be one to welcome them out of my wallet and land, even those who do a “good job” while forcing me to pay for what I don’t need and would never want for my own kids.

Maybe we could sell of a great portion of the land that the Federal government owns (29% of all land) and use the money to buy annuities for anyone who paid even a cent into social security, medicare or any socialized fraudulent scheme. Give them a lump sum, and let them blow it or invest it or give it to charity as they see fit. Then turn off the telephones for those who screw up — I’ll be the first one to feed a elder neighbor who didn’t take the time to prepare for the future. The food won’t be great, but that’s why I save in gold and silver today, so that I can eat tomorrow. I don’t see why I should be forced to pay today for the mistakes others made yesterday, unless I can dole it out as my budget allows.

For the really needy, I would be amazed to see how much more money the local churches and houses of faith would get once the federal welfare acts were dissolved. The houses of faith that I serve through VIPMinistry.com are all hurting for money — the average family has none to give, so the local churches can’t afford to share. It is unfortunate, but the Christian Right are to blame for much of the madness, and I’m glad to watch local churches fail that have been pro-force and pro-coercion and war. I smile at the understanding that they’ve reaped what they’ve sown. I can only hope it happens to more so that they might some day find the reason for the failure — the market that they destroyed came to destroy them. Efficient, and Godly.

I would prepare for the day that the TSA was given pink slips all at once (I’d even donate some pink paper!), and watch the lines at the airport disappear and security be returned to the airlines who wouldn’t be able to hide behind federal protections and insurance bailouts. The worst thing that can happen by a terrorist is a financial problem, not a moral one. One airplane falling out of the sky because someone wasn’t properly scanned for a bomb would be financial collapse of a huge investment — that is enough to protect the airspace. The worst airline disasters happen in the countries with the most State control; doesn’t that say enough? I’d love to pull up to the airport 1/2 hour before flight rather than 2 1/2 hours before flight. The savings might mean a return to the $99 one-way airfares that was so common before 9/11.

I’d jump for joy at the idea of an increase in the possible size of the individual States, if you can believe that. Instead of a huge uncompetitive Federal bureaucracy, you’d have individual States that would have to jockey for the best residents for their markets. I’d happily pack up my liberal-Statist friends and ship them off to California, all expenses paid. Then I’d gather the conservative-Statist friends and ship them off to Texas. Sorry for those who live in either States, but I have visited both recently and I have no love for the mainstream thought processes in either Statist paradises. Without the federal government in our lives, I’d happily invite a few dozen of my friends from around the world to come and reap the benefits of living in the paradise I call the land of the Founding Fathers — deep soil, great rain seasons, perfect access to the West and the East and a plethora of opportunities that have been closed off because of immigration restrictions that prevent the best from coming over to access the now-lost benefits of a fairly free market. The biggest restriction for the U.S. has been a limit on immigration.

Along with reaping the benefits of a larger local market to sell to, one huge opportunity for work would come from the destruction of minimum wage regulations that were mandated by the Federal government. Surely many of the States would be quick to enforce their own “living wage” laws, but not all. I’d move to the State that didn’t, and then I’d work to find the most efficient workers for my market. This might mean paying some untrained recruits very little, but this would be mutually beneficial — I would find a few diamonds in the rough, and those diamonds would be cut and honed to a perfect shine of talent when they get the training from me that they would never have. Those diamonds would quickly rise in income-potential because my competitors would be watching them, as I would be watching their own diamonds. I might even compete with my own diamonds in a few years as they learn from me what no subsidized-education can teach: work + responsibility + savings = prosperity.

And imagine the best part of all of this: the destruction of counterfeit money. With the Federal government temporarily stopped, the Treasury would be closed, too. Ben Bernanke can go beg on the street rather than destroy our savings. With the dollar no longer in production, the market would be VERY quick to find something else to use. I’d put my faith in gold, silver or another valuable asset. Without the ability to depreciate the value of the currency, prices would fall over time, but money would go up in value over time since we’d have more products to buy with the same money — more supply = more value. You could save your money in your shoebox, and your kids would have more value for that money, unlike today where your money falls in value even if it is earning a decent interest rate.

I like IMarvinTPA’s idea for paying off the federal debt by turning off the federal government for a few years, but I don’t think the debt is the problem. To me, the problem is the idea that a Federal government can do even one single thing right for even a small portion of the 200+ million residents on the land we call the U.S. Let us return to the day of States that are United under one philosophy: no federal intrusion, and open competition that foster prosperity not laziness.

Discuss this article at our anarcho-capitalism forum.

Manuel Lora of The Swamp Land Exile copies and pastes a great little story over at his site titled Income Tax Explained. From his (copied) post:

Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; “It’s just a tax cut for the rich!” and it is just accepted to be fact. But what does that really mean? Just in case you are not completely clear on this issue, I hope the following will help. Please read it carefully.

Let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

Read the rest at his site.