Stop Predatory Gambling

Tax collector becomes another victim of “voluntary taxation”

by spgadmin

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a somber story about Michael O’Neill, a local tax collector who embezzled $225,000 to feed a gambling addiction at the Parx Casino just outside of Philadelphia.

Many public officials defend the government program of predatory gambling as “voluntary taxation” so there is tragic irony to the news that the life of a local government tax official – a man who collects the taxes that all of us pay to fund our schools, roads and bridges – is now destroyed by this “voluntary” tax collection system.

By definition, someone who is addicted cannot act voluntarily. They have no free will. They are addicted. To exist, the government program of predatory gambling must take away the free will of millions of Americans because its business model based on people who are addicted.

Vice President Joe Biden said during the 2008 campaign that “paying taxes is patriotic.” What would he say about “voluntary” taxes like those paid by Mr. O’Neill?