Economic secession has been variously defined by sources. In its narrowest sense, it is abstention from the state's economic system, such as by replacing the use of

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

money with

barter In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists disti ...

Local Exchange Trading Systems A local exchange trading system (also local employment and trading system or local energy transfer system; abbreviated LETS) is a locally initiated, democratically organised, not-for-profit community enterprise that provides a community infor ...

, or

commodity money Commodity money is money whose value comes from a commodity of which it is made. Commodity money consists of objects having value or use in themselves (intrinsic value) as well as their value in buying goods. This is in contrast to representat ...

such as

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. Wendell Berry may have coined the term "economic secession" and promoted his own version in his 1991 essay ''Conservation and Local Economy''. John T. Kennedy used the term to refer to all human action that is forbidden by the state and explains economic secession as

tax avoidance Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdi ...

or refusal to follow regulations as a method to reduce government control.

Samuel Edward Konkin III Samuel Edward Konkin III (8 July 1947 – 23 February 2004), also known as SEK3, was an American libertarian philosopher and Austrian school economist. As the author of the publication '' New Libertarian Manifesto'', he was a proponent of a polit ...

used the term "

counter-economics Counter-economics is an economic theory and revolutionary method consisting of direct action carried out through the black market or the gray market. As a term, it was originally used by American libertarian activists and theorists Samuel Edward ...

" to refer to a similar concept."The Agorist Institute Report to Supporters", Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 1996 Economic secession takes government out of the equation in making economic decisions. Trading happens through payment in-kind, cash and barter. Economic secession is a way for the individuals to withdraw their wealth for both economic and political reasons. If individuals disagree with the use of tax money to fund a political agenda, they use economic secession as a means of privately protesting the control of government in their lives. The opinion that government is too involved in society fuels individuals to withdraw economically and view their withdrawal from the government system as a moral stand.

Tax avoidance and evasion

Economic secession can involve both legal and illegal tax avoidance such as underground business, black markets and offshore connections. There are as many as sixty offshore locations for wealthy investors to hide their money, including locations in the Caribbean, Channel Island, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. Another tactic that is employed is creating a secret identity where a person acts on behalf of the individual or trust. Cheating the system by wiring money through multiple payments below the $10,000 reportable amount is another way to go unnoticed. Some tax evaders take out credit cards with an identity connected to an

offshore company The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to: * a company, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshoring business pr ...

. Moving money around by opening a bank account in a location that is not connect to where they trust is registered is another way to stay anonymous. Because secessionists do not pay taxes they withdraw themselves not only financially, but socially. If you want to be able to enjoy the wealth you shelter, it will be coming visible, and the government will eventually realize your wealth and you will pay taxes. If your money remains hidden, you are successful in your secession, but cannot use it for exchange. The exchange of goods and money creates the flow of energy within an economic system. "In society, initially innovation drives the changes and innovation creates the building blocks which allow the next stages of social and economic development." If individuals or companies decrease their spending on innovation, the energy into the economic system will decline. Economic secession withdraws capital that leads to innovation and economic prosperity in society.

References

External links

*
Economic Secession
by John T. Kennedy *
Economic Secession Won’t Succeed
by Gene Callahan *

by

Claire Wolfe Claire Wolfe is a libertarian author and columnist. Some of Wolfe's favored topics are gulching or homesteading, firearms, homeschooling, open source technology, and opposition to national ID and the surveillance state or nanny state. Career a ...

*
Counter-Economics: Our Means
by Samuel Edward Konkin III, chapter three of
New Libertarian Manifesto
' * ''Abstract:'

{{Anarchism Anarchist theory Secession Tax resistance Tax avoidance Separatism in the United States

Tax avoidance and evasion

See also

References

External links