The Movement Grows

It is not just the formal libertarian movement that is growing either. Here in South Africa, there is no formal libertarian movement to speak of. And yet, huge numbers of people prefer to "fly under the radar." See this article, for example, published in a local paper today:

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-13-taxes-force-startups-underground

The South African government has taxed itself into a corner. Taxes on alcohol and tobacco have become so prohibitive that a whole new market for illegal cigarettes and booze has been created (and with it, the attendant criminality of such underground markets, and this in a country already suffering from one of the highest crime rates in the world!) Businesses are taxed into the ground, so they either close down or slip underground. Private citizens increasingly hide as much of their income as they can, including even ones who are not opposed to taxation in a general sort of way, but are just fed up with unduly high tax rates, and the way in which most of that money gets wasted or used to enrich the new elite.

Rather strangely though, in election after election, the people vote for the same old parties. Not me though. I will not vote again until such time as the option "none of the above" is explicitly on the ballot.