A post submitted by CGI member Morgan:

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By Michael Snyder (Usually posted by NightSky)

http://endoftheamericandream.com/8-things-that-the-mainstream-media-is-being-strangely-quiet-about-right-now/

The entire system has been designed to generate as much revenue from your activity as possible until someday you eventually drop dead. It is tax season, and that means that it is time to feed the largest and most bloated government in the history of the entire planet once again. Of course the federal income tax is just one of the ways that they are systematically draining your wealth. As you will see below, there are literally dozens of taxes that Americans must pay each year. Many of our politicians seem to revel in inventing ways to extract money out of us, and that needs to stop.

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One thing nice about being a minimalist with few obligations. I feed the system as little as possible. Of course there are other benefits. Less work is necessary, a lot less stress, people aren't going to be out to make your acquaintance for mercenary reasons if you look like something the cat dragged in, and you have a lot more discretionary time.

Morgan

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#1 Do you think that you own your home? You might want to think again. Most Americans that “own a home” are paying a mortgage. If you stop paying that mortgage you will lose that home. The number of foreclosures in the United States last year was up 174 percent from 2021, and mortgage delinquencies have been rising in recent months.

When homeowners get booted out of their homes, they don’t get their down payments back.

They also don’t get all of the mortgage payments that they have made back.

The banks get to keep the money and the homes.

Perhaps you have paid off your mortgage. Does that mean that you now “own your home”?

#2 Do you think that you own your vehicle? You don’t own it if you are still making payments on it. Of course if you stop making payments you will rapidly lose that vehicle.

But even if it is paid off, you can only operate that vehicle if you do the following…
See also Alert! The Economic Numbers That We Are Getting Now Are Absolutely Staggering

*You must pay the license fee.

*You must pay the car registration fee.

*You must pay the emissions inspection fee.

*You must pay the property taxes on that vehicle if that applies in your area.

*You must pay the tire taxes.

*You must pay the gas taxes.

If you have paid all of those taxes, then you are permitted to drive only where the government allows you to drive and only under the rules that the government sets for you.

But at least you “own” your vehicle, right?

#3 What about your possessions? Do you own them?

Well, yes, you probably own some possessions.

But that doesn’t mean that they are not enslaving you.

After all, did you use a credit card to pay for any of them?

If so, you could end up paying far more for your possessions than you originally thought that they cost.

#4 Do you own your education? Well, it is undeniable that nobody can ever take it away from you. But if you took out student loans to get your education, that debt may end up enslaving you for decades.

The borrower is the servant of the lender and student loan debt is more of a financial drain on Americans than ever before. Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards.

Today, Americans owe more than 1.7 trillion dollars on their student loans, which is a new all-time record.

#5 Will you protect your wealth if you put your money in the bank?

No, in fact your wealth will be systematically destroyed in the bank.

Inflation is a hidden tax on every single dollar that you own, because it destroys the value of all dollars in existence.

There are some Americans that have been saving money for decades, but those savings are being taxed into oblivion by inflation.

Just compare the price of a carton of 12 eggs five years ago to the price of a carton of eggs today.

When the cost of living goes up, the value of the money that we have put in the bank goes down.

#6 Insurance costs continue to soar. After insuring virtually everything in our lives, many of us barely have any money left over to actually live our lives with.

#7 State and local governments all over the nation have turned to ticket writing as a primary revenue source. They know that most people do not carefully follow the speed limit, and so they have turned that behavior into a revenue-generating tool.

#8 Some states have decided to simply confiscate wealth even if nothing has been done wrong. For example, some states are now aggressively seizing “unclaimed” safe deposit boxes. If you have a safe deposit box that you have not checked on in a while, you might want to make sure that it is still there.

#9 You might end up losing your valuables when you cross the border. U.S. border agents regularly seize laptops and other electronic devices as people cross the border. In many cases those items are never returned.

#10 If you don’t pay your property taxes, you will lose your home and it will likely be a big Wall Street bank that will end up owning it. The big Wall Street banks have been buying up thousands of tax liens and are making a killing by socking distressed homeowners with predatory interest, outrageous penalties and almost unbelievable legal fees.

Much more on link above ^