By Joe Jarvis

The government depends on the citizens to produce, to create value from which the ruling classes can leech. They need to keep us working and spending in ways that they prescribe in order to insert themselves into transactions which would otherwise have nothing to do with them. Here are five ways that they keep the tax farm going.

1. Credit Cards and Debt

Credit cards, student loan debt, home loans, and car loans all represent an obligation to work full time. Once you have been saddled with debt, you cannot make the choice to take time off to pursue a business endeavor you are passionate about. You are on the hamster wheel.

The more debt you have, the more you have to earn, and the more taxes you will pay on those earnings. The less freedom you have to be productive in an alternative way.

The housing bubble was no accident; the government doesn’t care if you can afford it, they want you to “own” a home–or rather own a mortgage.

Of course, debt has its place, for instance taking on a home loan in order to have lower monthly payments than rent, and put that money into an asset.

But the problem comes when people take on an expensive home loan because they currently have a great job, ignoring the possibility that the job may not always be there. There are people who take out loans for a car–a clever trick GM started back in the day–in order to keep up with their neighbors or squeeze some momentary satisfaction out of the purchase.

And, of course, credit cards give us a dangerous “solution” to depression: shop therapy! Just like a drug, it can give a momentary high, replaced by an anxious desperation when the bill comes. And all the while you are paying sales tax on almost every purchase.