Like any carnivorous beast, Leviathan has a ravenous appetite, but it differs in that its appetite is never satisfied and it has even been known to eat itself to death. Leviathan’s only and favorite staple is, of course, taxes.

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In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.Isaiah 27:1

Leviathan, that great mythical sea creature referenced only a handful of times in the Old Testament, was first referred to as synonymous with the State by Thomas Hobbes in his 1651 work on the social contract, entitled none other than Leviathan.

According to Hobbes, Leviathan or a strong central government is necessary to deter what Hobbes considered to be the natural state of man, which he described as “war of every man against every man“. Hobbes postulated that the State brings order and peace and makes society civilized.

Without need of either advocating or rejecting Hobbes’ arguments in favor of a strong State, one can hardly look upon modern governments, including the United States federal government and the individual United States, without agreeing that Hobbes’ depiction of the State as a Leviathan, that is, a threatening, powerful beast, was spot-on.

Like any carnivorous beast, Leviathan has a ravenous appetite, but it differs in that its appetite is never satisfied and it has even been known to eat itself to death. Leviathan’s only and favorite staple is, of course, taxes.

Taxation — whether direct, indirect, or through monetary depreciation (i.e., inflation) — keeps the State alive, permits it to grow, and facilitates its power, which so often becomes despotic. Taxes are, if you will, Leviathan’s super-food, packed full of vitamins and minerals and all wrapped up in a munchy morsel of the sweat and energy of those whose labor cooked it at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Taxes are to Leviathan what spinach is to Popeye. After several days on a diet exclusively of protein-rich taxes even the tiniest of critters will mutate into a Sigourney Weaver alien-like monster ready to devour all in its path.

If Leviathan is now breathing its fiery breath down the necks of every American it is because in the last one hundred years we have unLocked its cage, let it out, and voluntarily provided him a feeding platter of tasty tax-filled Wonka bars.

It has been long in coming, but some Americans are finally starting to realize the danger of Leviathan and that such a fiend must be stopped. On April 15, 2009, thousands of liberty-loving Americans held T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) parties in hundreds of cities throughout the U.S. protesting the heavy burden of taxation that the State has placed on their backs. (Of course the neo-con politicians and media outlets that jumped on the bandwagon to transform the tea parties into an Obama bashing party in order to placate their voter base and audiences, and the Obama-hating-Bush-loving Republicans, are not included in the category “liberty-loving”.)

But the tea party participants are faced with several barriers to achieving their much desired Second American [Tax] Revolution. One such barrier, and perhaps the most important one to overcome, is that classical liberal views on taxation are still in the minority. In 1776, the opposite was true, because most Americans, and Britains for that matter, believed in the natural right of property.

A correct understanding of the natural right of property is the key to quelling Leviathan’s appetite for taxes. No one better explained this natural right than John Locke in his Second Treatise of Government.

According to Locke, the right to property is premised on two fundamental truths, the first being that the earth and everything in it was given to all men in common for their use.

Second, Locke reasons that since man has a natural right to his own life — that is, an exclusive right to the property of his own person and everything that is an extension of his person including “the labour of his body, and the work of his hands” — once someone mixes his own labor with what is otherwise common property, the common property becomes his alone:

“It being by him removed from the common state nature hath placed it in, it hath by this labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other men: for this labour being the unquestionable property of the labourer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to, at least where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others.” [Chap. V, Sec. 27]

Modern day Leviathan shuns the Lockean view on property. Indeed, it turns Locke’s reasoning upside down. Today men do not have an equal right to property in its natural state. No, it is the State, not the individual, which now exercises exclusive control over and right to common property. The United States federal government, for example, owns 650 million acres of land, or 30 percent of the entire land area of the United States. Such “ownership” by the federal government prevents, by use of force, anyone from improving that land with his labor for his own use — a direct violation of the right of property. Under natural law, therefore, the federal government is a trespasser and a squatter.

The State also has first rights upon the labor of the individual. In times past, “freemen” were those who owned their own labor. The federal income tax (and state income taxes where applicable), however, takes one’s labor by threat of force, and subjugates every industrious American into the status of an indentured servant or part-time slave.

Further, the State exercises ownership over one’s labor in the form of real property taxes. It takes a lifetime of labor for most people to pay for a house and the land on which it sits, but individuals can never actually own real property in the United States because of the property tax which every state has implemented although to differing degrees.

The list of taxes is never ending and includes in addition to income and property taxes sales taxes, tariffs, excise taxes, value added taxes, transportation taxes, and estate taxes. Is it any wonder Leviathan is able to have three ten-course meals a day?

Now imagine a United States which recognizes and protects the natural right of property. [Harp music softly playing with the present world fading out.] For starters there would be no income tax and no property tax, the meat and potatoes of Leviathan’s supper. Everyone would have more disposable income as a result. Governments would be forced to slim down, and as a result become less intrusive. Real property would be readily and cheaply available. Everyone could own a home on his own piece of land. Families, through their own hard work, could reach self sufficiency by improving land to produce resources for their own needs and to fill the demands of others. The only cost of unimproved property would be the labor of he who decides to improve it. The natural right to property provides limitless positive possibilities. [Present world fades back in, this time in black and white.]

But apparently that is not the world in which we want to live. Most Americans have taken it as a given that income and property taxes are here to stay and individuals who advocate their abolition are generally dismissed as radicals or anarchists. Nevermind that such taxes are an egregious violation of the right of property. No one seems to think about taxes along those lines anymore.

Leviathan, therefore, has been able to grow and flourish because of our rejection of the natural right of property, and it will only continue to grow until it requires for its sustenance all of the labor of every individual under its dominion. At that point Leviathan will commit suicide because the laws of economics will not allow such a creature to survive for long, but without our return to basic Lockean principles, Leviathan will take us down with it.

Isaiah suggests that divine intervention is required to stop Leviathan, and perhaps that may ultimately be true, but the framework for reining in the State is in place, and that framework — that taxes are evil because they infringe on the right of property — was once the predominant view in America.

If we are ever to downsize the State, however, we must starve it and that will only happen if a majority of Americans understand that we have a natural right to property and that any tax is a violation of that right. Once Americans reach such an understanding the State will only be able to survive, rather than thrive, because any tax that is levied will be to enable the State to carry out its only purpose — to protect the individual’s natural rights. Indeed, a populace equipped with knowledge of natural rights just might be the sword Isaiah says will be used to “punish leviathan”.

Defeating Leviathan will be a monstrous task, but if we can Locke up our knowledge of property rights we just may be able to Locke up Leviathan.

Source: Campaign for Liberty