De Facto Government by the Fraternity of Quatloos
by Adrian Banks
12-17-03
[Note: I realize that this is a little long winded, but to make all of my points, it had to be.]
While going through some of my saved emails, I ran across a couple from an anonymous person who wrote me from the www.Quatloos.com web site. A lot of folks out there wonder why there is no more justice in the courts. These two emails explain the root of the problem. The first one was in response to an email I sent to them about the perversion of the income tax laws and the slavery questions associated with the perversion. Anyone who takes the time to do the research can see that the income tax was never intended to be a general labor tax that determined the allowance workers would receive from their labor. The tax was meant to tax accumulated wealth, not despoil workers of the fruits of their labor. Let us now read Quatloos email #1 which was received on 1-06-03.
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Thanks for your message. We have found the "slavery" argument to be one of the dumbest of the many dumb arguments put forth by tax protestors. The reason is stunningly simple: How can people be said to be "slaves" when they are totally, 100% free to leave the U.S. at any time and travel to any one of a number of countries that have no income tax, like Costa Rica or Haiti?
The reason that people will not travel to Costa Rica or Haiti or other countries where there is no income tax is twofold: (1) the average standard of living in those countries doesn't even begin to approach that of the U.S.; and (2) even those countries impose other taxes (which are worse than income taxes) to finance their governments.
Before the income tax, the U.S. government raised money primarily by trade tariffs. These tariffs invited protective tariffs by other countries, and the net effect was that although the U.S. had tremendous industrial power, imports and exports were discouraged by the tariffs, and thus trade and the U.S. economy greatly suffered. The net result of this is that workers made much less money (that's when people worked for 20 cents per day and even young children worked to make ends meet), even if it was income tax free. When the U.S. went to the income tax, the trade barriers came down, the U.S. economy started booming and has made rather consistent gains, AND the NET income and standard of living of the average worker is much higher than it was before.
Otherwise stated, is the average worker better off with 100% of $200 (average annual wages in Haiti) or 70% of $25,000????? That's a no-brainer. So, get off this "slavery" stuff -- Not only is it not true (since you are free to leave at any time), but it wrongly assumes that the old tariffs system is better than the income tax. [My note: all forms of taxation combine forces to take around 50% of what you earn - the 70% figure is inaccurate.]
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The status of slavery is primarily determined by examining how the law operates upon your labor. A slave's standard of living has always been determined by the master's laws. If you receive an allowance from your labor instead of the equivalent of your labor, then your labor does not belong to you. As supreme court justice Curtis told us in the Dred Scott decision of 1857, it is "the compulsory power of directing and receiving the fruits of his labor" that determines if the status of slavery attaches to someone. According to Quatloos, this reasoning is flawed because you can leave this country and because the standard of living is better in this country than in some other countries. This argument is not new. It is old - very, very old. The slaveholders of pre civil war times used it.
"Whenever the subject is discussed, we are told, that through the lenity of the master, the slave suffers less than the laborer in most other countries. He has more comforts, we hear. He is happier. To this refuge the slaveholder always flies." William Channing, Boston Minister, 1839
One young man allowed me to use his paycheck stub at a campaign rally we had during my year 2000 congressional campaign. We put the information on a big poster so all could clearly see it. The stub reveals a typical paycheck for this young man, whose name is Vincent. Regular Pay - $237.80. Deductions: FICA-OASDI $12.67; Federal $14.93; FICA-HI $2.96; State - SC $5.00; Child Support $82.25; SUPTI - Proc. Fee $3.00; Med Plan $27.50; Dental Plan $ 5.95. This left Vincent $83.54 per week to try and live on. 65% of his labor is taken each week. This, by the way, was the level of taxation imposed upon the labor of Jewish workers in the Lodz ghetto of Poland during WWII. It was considered slavery back then.
What standard of living does Vincent and others men like him enjoy? I would say that Quatloos' standard of living is very good, for most of them are probably lawyers. Vincent had also been charged with driving without insurance shortly before the campaign rally. After all, how could he afford it? I brought Vincent's servitude to the attention of the editors of the major newspaper in my area during my campaign. All congressional candidates were invited to be interviewed by these editors. The chief editor of the Anderson Independent Mail simply was arrogant about it all, and said: "He should have kept it in his pants." I doubt this particular member of the Quatloos fraternity feels any sorrow over the plight of slaves like Vincent, and even though thousands of fathers commit suicide every year to emancipate themselves, he and all his other Quatloos fraternity members sleep soundly at night while living in greater wealth that most people will ever see. His mentality reflects the mentality of the editors of the major newspapers of the country. They are all part of the Quatloos fraternity. In fact, the bigger the father suicide pogrom becomes, the more oppresive their laws become.
It would be justice long overdue if all the Quatlooses of the world could be stripped of all their wealth and have the same yoke fastened around their necks that men like Vincent has to endure. Many men like him end up in jail and labeled a "deadbeat parent." Is there any wonder why thousands of these fathers commit suicide each year? I submit that it's a no-brainer. (To read some articles on father suicides, go to http://ancpr.org/suicide_and_divorce__a_collectio.htm)
This is how the Quatlooses of the world operate upon those who oppose their power. They first try to make you look stupid and then they label you. "Tax protester" and "deadbeat parent" are the two most common labels they use. Then they create legal fictions to give the illusion of freedom and deny that any slavery exists when confronted with slavery arguments. Evil cannot be justified because of its infliction upon millions.
I sent one more email in reply to Quatloos' first one trying to reason with them further. How could someone like Vincent, for example, afford to leave the country? Many fathers, thanks to laws that have been enacted in the past ten years, cannot get passports because they are alleged to owe over $5000 in back child support. At any rate, here's email #2 received on 1-07-03.
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Adding a few off-topic quotes to blathering doesn't make it any less blathering. How can people leave? Hell, it's simple: They load themselves and what worldly possessions they can carry in their cars and they drive down to Miami and buy passage to Haiti, which is less than $500. Or, they can escape south across the border to Mexico (don't run over the Mexican frantically trying to get into the U.S. to have a better life), and then find their way to a lower tax country from there. And, you stupid fool, you don't need a passport to LEAVE the United States -- you only need it to return, which you won't be doing once free from the U.S.
In fact, this is the U.S.'s biggest problem with "tax protestors" -- they are too dumb to know how to leave.
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The Quatlooses, on their web site, point out that the "tax protesters" are batting zero against the IRS. This is no surprise. After all, the government lawyers and judges are all members of the Quatloos fraternity. For example, imagine if you were a Jew and all the government lawyers and judges were Nazis. Would there be any justice for Jews? It's a no-brainer.
In the years before the civil war, a man named Hinton Rowan Helper of North Carolina wrote a book entitled "Impending Crisis of the South." It was first published in 1854. Mr. Helper did a lot of research to write his book trying to prove that a free labor system was better than a slave labor system. He saw how firmly in control the slaveholders had become in government at all levels in the South. He could not find where one non-slaveholding white held one office at any level of government. He concluded that the non-slaveholding whites were just as much slaves, if not more so, than the negroes. Helper stated that many non-slaveholding whites passed through life without ever owning $5 at one time. Helper, in reference to the power the slaveholders of his day wielded, stated: "The magistrates in the villages, the constables in the districts, the commissioners of the towns, the mayors of the cities, the judges of the various courts, the members of the legislatures, the governors of the States, the representatives and senators of Congress - are all slaveholders." The slaveholders also dominated the press of that time. Here is the key to understanding why there is no more justice in when it comes to individual rights, especially when it comes to the right to free labor. The Quatlooses have been able to entrench themselves at all levels of government, the media, and the press. They enslave people by the millions and deceive many into thinking they are free. You are not free. Your labor is not your property and the same is true of your children. Your particular servitude may not be as oppressive as it is in other countries, but you are a slave just the same. After all, the Quatlooses lay claim to people's labor at birth today by assigning newborn children Taxpayer Identification Numbers. It's also a sober reminder that most Germans never thought themselves to be slaves when the Nazis were in power. So deceiving masses of people is nothing new.
Wages, by the way, are a type of income. But since the essential feature of gain or profit is missing with wages, it is not "income" in the legal sense of the word. The supreme court simply stated back in 1962 that "production of income is a profit-seeking activity" (U.S. v. Gilmore), and, according to my research, they have yet to rule on the constitutionality of using the income tax to directly tax labor. The closest they came was in the 1990 term (Cheek v. U.S.), and is this case the criminal federal tax convictions of Cheek, a wage earner, was reversed and remanded by the court on statutory grounds, so that the court did not have to consider the constitutional violations, even though they implied that "serious constitutional questions" were involved in the case. In Cheek's new trial, however, he was convicted and spent a year and a day in federal prison. His appeal to the supreme court this time was denied. Even the seats of the supreme court, the highest tribunal in the land that is supposed to defend our constitutional rights, has become occupied by members of the Quatloos fraternity. (To read the legal fictions that the Quatlooses have come up with alleging that wages and tips are a type of income that can be constitutionally taxed, go to http://www.quatloos.com/taxscams/meaning_of_income.htm) It is also interesting to note that Senator Elihu Root, in defending the 16th amendment back in 1913, said:
"I do not consider that the amendment in any degree whatever will enlarge the taxing powers of the National Government, or will have any effect except to relieve the exercise of that taxing power from the requirement that the tax shall be apportioned among the several states. The effect of the amendment will be, in my view, the same as if it said: 'The United States may lay a tax on incomes without apportioning the tax, and this shall be applicable whatever the source of the income subjected to the tax; leaving the question, What incomes are subject to national taxation? to be determined by the same principles and rules which are now applicable to the determination of that question."
Senator Root and the other members of Congress at the time knew that not all types of income would fall with the federal income taxing powers, and that, in his view, the amendment would not enlarge the federal government's taxing powers at all. The first exemption rate was placed at 8 times above the earnings of the average worker. The Congress that gave us the 16th amendment had no intention whatsoever to use the income tax as a general labor tax. Think about this. If your labor can be taxed to any extent the rulers wish, then what limits are there to the taxing powers? They have no limits anymore - there are no longer any boundaries. The 16th amendment was never intended to confer such broad and unlimited taxing powers.
Tell me, when a man like Vincent works all week to receive his meager allowance of around $83, is he "profit-seeking?" To me, this is a no-brainer too. The Constitution grants no power to any level of government to enslave people like in Vincent's example. The right to free labor is supposed to be an inalienable right. Exceptions to the 13th amendment should have been made legal by further constitutional amendment, not by circumventing the Constitution and then using legal fictions to try and hide the servitudes that have been created by the operation of law and enforced by the police power of the state. If all the government wanted was revenue, they could tax people as consumers, but this would deny the Quatlooses direct access to our labor, and the Quatlooses of the world don't want this. Taxing the wages and salaries of government workers and officers is also insane, because taxing tax money produces no revenue. It reminds me of a cow burping up a cud and then chewing on it - it produces no additional food for the cow to digest.
So the next time you think about touching the legal system to try and defend your rights, remember that you will be going before courts that are controlled by judges of the Quatloos fraternity. Take notice of the hateful and arrogant tone of the Quatloos emails. I personally have been before judges with this type of despotic mentality. If the judges are unwilling to accept the truth in your legal arguments, then how can you expect them to rule in favor of your rights? They look at human labor as a great feast to tax and garnish at the pleasure of the state, and this is freedom? All one has to do is research the decisions of the U.S. supreme court prior to the New Deal of the 1930's versus the recent ones of today. The spirit of the court has changed. Their zeal to defend the Constitution and individual liberty has diminished so much, is virtually gone (for the most recent examples, go to http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36159, or http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20031216.shtml). Many seem to have forgotten that democracy can be as despotic as an absolute monarchy if unrestrained by a fundamental law, or a constitution.
When it comes to power over labor, "tax protesters" and "deadbeat parents" are an illusion - a clever propaganda ploy that is used to pervert the public mind and hide the truth. The real problem is with the "deadbeat masters" whom the public will overwhelmingly vote for next election cycle. Remember, the mind of Quatloos dominates all levels of government and most of the lawyers, the media, the press, and institutions of higher learning. This poisons many people's minds who are sorely in need of a course in SLAVERY 101. This is an interesting thought. What in depth study of slavery is there in the government schools today, or, for that matter, when us baby boomers went to school? We were taught that slavery was abolished, but there was no in depth study of the subject of slavery itself. Why is that? The course in SLAVERY 101 would do the Quatlooses no good, for they have no intention of accepting long established truths.
Only Quatlooses will be on the ballot for you to vote for next election. Those who oppose their way of thinking that are able to get on the ballot will be held before the public, like I was, as having no chance of winning, thus assuring that only Quatlooses will get elected to office.
Look at how deeply rooted all the servitudes have become that operate upon your labor. Taxation, mandatory insurance schemes, wage garnishment, family court oppression, and child support are the main contributors to these servitudes - all of them with the force of law behind them and the police power of the state stands ready to punish the disobedient who dare to claim that their own labor belongs to them. The Quatlooses have power at all levels of government, and the full backing of the military and the police. No armed rebellion by human efforts will prevail against them. Only Armageddon will rid the earth of their despotism's, and until then, we are trapped in their system of deceit.
Even though Helper could see that the non-slaveholding whites of pre civil war times were slaves, these non-slaveholding whites fought with patriotic zeal against the Northern armies. 300,000 of them died trying to defend the authority of their masters. With this final thought in mind, I leave you with one more quote from Hinton Helper's book from 1854.
"There is no legislation except for the benefit of slavery, and slaveholders. As a general rule, poor white persons are regarded with less esteem and attention than negroes, and though the condition of the latter is wretched beyond description, vast numbers of the former are infinitely worse off. A cunningly devised mockery of freedom is guaranteed to them, and that is all. To all intents and purposes, they are disenfranchised, and outlawed, and the only privilege extended to them, is a shallow and circumscribed participation in the political movements that usher slaveholders into office."