When the two young petty thieves, Rinconete and Cortadillo, came to Seville they were quickly censured for stealing.
To their surprise, it wasn’t for the theft itself, but instead because they were not registered with the local thieves’ guild.
In this upside-down world imagined by Miguel Cervantes, theft was not a crime, but a craft—performed in the name of God and justice.
And like any other craftsmen of the day, the thieves had formed a guild. There they provided training and support to their members, while maintaining an exclusive right to engage in the trade.
This past month, a real-life guild of thieves was formed. With 51 governments pledging their support to each other for the protection of their ignoble craft of theft. And another 30 pledging to join by 2018.
From day one, governments have been pilfering their citizens’ assets through taxation, claiming a monopoly on thievery.
From the largest institution to the pettiest pickpocket, anyone else who tries to engage in theft is severely punished, as governments work to protect their exclusive right to steal.
Frighteningly, they do this all out in the open, believing that they actually have a moral right to commit theft.
You can see this delusion in the US government’s claims that last year they “lost out” on $337 billion from people avoiding taxes. As if they have some moral claim to the money they’d failed to pilfer.
Nonetheless, they use this claim to justify actively hunting down and penalizing anyone who takes action to avoid being stolen from.
The ones that are doing this are the bankrupt countries, and the deeper they slide into debt, the more desperate they become.
Which is why these broke governments are now joining forces, pledging to to collect and share information amongst themselves about citizens’ bank accounts, taxes, assets and income outside local tax jurisdictions.
Basically—I’ll help you steal from your citizens if you help me steal from mine.
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