Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael America’s #1 War Tax Resister Larry Bassett Talks Peace & Protest!
On this edition of Parallax Views, America's #1 War Tax Resister Larry Bassett, the subject of the recent award-winning independent documentary The Pacifist, joins us to discuss his life and times. War tax resistance is a radical subset of the peace movement that refuses to pay the IRS, but not for selfish reasons. Rather war tax resisters like Larry do not want their tax dollar going to the funding of America war abroad. Given that a hefty portion of income taxes go to the defense budget, war tax resisters often redirect their money that would go to the IRS into charitable organizations. Larry's story is particularly unique in that he's been a war tax protesters for decades and, since then, has inherite $1 million dollars after the passing of his father. Larry owes over $200k to the IRS, but, interestingly, has exceeded that amount in his donations to charitable causes locally and globally. One thing that is striking about Larry is that he lives a relatively inexpensive life that resists not only the war tax but also hedonism. And in doing so he seems all the happier for it as Larry, in the opinion of this podcaster, is one of the most upbeat personalities to have graced this program. This is an extremely fascinating and touching episode of Parallax Views that you're can't possibly miss.