Taxman
1997 | Reggae
"I pay my gardener to clean up my garden. -- I pay my doctor to check out da other ting. -- I pay my lawyer to fight for my rights. -- And I pay my bodyguard to guard my body. -- There's only one man I pay, but I don't know what I'm paying for. -- I'm talking about the taxman."
Trivia
- Lucky Dube was a south African reggae musician born in 1964, murdered in 2007.
- He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English & Afrikaans.
- His album Rastas Never Die was banned in 1985 by the government for it's critical lyrics.
THE HOT TAKES
Luke Tatum
Doing this Freedom Song 365 project, sometimes it seems like there has alwasy been a massive libertarian movement, it's just that people didn't have a name to call themselves. What an awesome wake up call: Everyone we pay, we pay for a reason. The gardener tends the garden, et cetera. The only person we pay that gives us nothing in return is the Taxman. Or, the IRS. Or, Congress. However you want to conceptualize it, the end result is the same: Taxes are milked from the public, and we get practically nothing in return. In some cases, we end up a truly raw deal, paying for things like police brutality that could easily be targeted at our own selves! And of course, I can't overlook the excellent humor here: "I pay for the police; To err...I don't know why; 'Cause if my dollar was good enough; There wouldn't be so much crime in the streets." We've seen with the real-world example of the Detroit Threat Management Center that for-profit, free market policing can work. And yet, here we are. Another Tax Day is right around the corner. And we're all facing extortion on a scale that boggles the mind.
Sherry Voluntary
Man this song is so lit! Not only is it reggae, which is awesome, it is meaningful. “There's only one man I pay / But I don't know what I'm paying for / I'm talking about the taxman” This is one of the tragedy of taxes. In every other financial interaction, you get to determine the need and value, of what you’re purchasing. You get to decide if paying the price for a good or service is worth it to you and beneficial to your life. With taxes, not only to do have no choice or say, the money that is stolen from you is used so inefficiently that they use it as a way to take even more from you. Taxes are just about generating revenue for the political elite, while giving the illusion of doing some greater good with them. I call bullshit.
Nicky P
Is that a Janet Jackson line in there? I think it is! There is definitely a big question when asking where millions of dollars went. These days we’d be excited if the debt was only in the millions. Oh that’s right they rob us blind in so many ways. They can outwardly tax us or do it through inflation. All of it to do what? No matter what, it never seems to fix the issue.