A “tax donkey” or “tax mule” is the average taxpayer, who works to support a government and gets very little back in the form of any representation or benefits. Charles Hugh Smith has used the term “tax donkey” on his blog Of Two Minds since July 7, 2010. Smith further defined the “tax donkey” on May 8, 2015:
   
Mike Swanson (Wall Street Window) and I were discussing the difference between the 1% who earns $360,000 annually and up and those in the Oligarchy class—the .01% (our podcast: America’s Nine Socio-Eco-Political Classes). The difference is the 1% remain Tax Donkeys: they pay most of the Federal and state income taxes, but are not wealthy enough to buy political influence. In other words, the 1% (and indeed, the top 10%) have taxation but no representation.
 
The terms “tax donkey” and “tax mule” were used infrequently before Charles Hugh Smith’s popularization. “What do the average malaysian voters know about palace architecture anyway. they are tax donkeys” was cited in 1999. “It’s enough to make a tax donkey fume” was cited in 2003. “Governments which seem to view families (particularly single-income families) as tax mules” was cited in 2005.
   
   
Wikipedia: Charles Hugh Smith
Charles Hugh Smith is an American writer and blogger. He is the chief writer for the site “Of Two Minds”. Started in 2005, this site has been listed No. 7 in CNBC’s top alternative financial sites. His commentary is featured on a number of sites including: Zerohedge.com., The American Conservative and Peak Prosperity. He graduated from the University of Hawaii, Manoa in Honolulu. Charles Hugh Smith currently resides in Berkeley, California and Hilo, Hawaii.
 
Mr. Smith’s articles, which critique the status quo, had influence from Braudel’s historical account of early capitalism. Smith’s economic works stress the value and efficacy of decentralizing power and wealth, the individual’s power of self-determination and the value of community, which in his view has been diminished by the state.
   
Google Groups: soc.culture.malaysia
Latest Pics of Dr Liar’s Palace in Putra Jaya
‘DivaDoo~’*
3/14/99
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what do the average malaysian voters know about palace architecture anyway. they are tax donkeys and…...voters. BN voters, supposedly.
 
Seattle (WA) Times
Wednesday, May 7, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Bruce Ramsey / Times editorial columnist
It’s enough to make a tax donkey fume
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First, someone ought to question fairness. Why should smokers pay the doctor bills of kids too young to smoke? This is not money for emphysema and lung cancer. It is for ear aches and broken arms.
 
The answer is that smoking is bad, and we need to discourage it. Thus, smokers are taxed “for their own good,” though the state does not really want them to quit. The state’s concern is rhetorical only. It needs a group of tax donkeys who will smoke and pay.
   
StarDestroyer.net
“New Zealand under seige from gay people” say fund
Darth Wong 
Post subject:  PostPosted: 2005-06-20 03:14am
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The problem is that because no one else champions this stuff, parties like this create a powerful incentive for families to vote for them even if they aren’t homophobes, just so that they’ll finally have some of their concerns heard by governments which seem to view families (particularly single-income families) as tax mules.
 
The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO)
OPINION: Philharmonic philanthropy
Staff reports Updated: October 15, 2008 at 12:00 am
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Philharmonic leaders should spend the months between now and July shamelessly pitching its virtue, and the value of this July 4 event, to our city’s largest corporations and wealthiest philanthropists. They should tell corporate donors and sponsors, not just tax mules, how valuable the celebration is to our town.
   
Campaign for Liberty
Celebrating the Joy of Taxes
Posted by jfkennedy on 11/14/09 10:15 AM
Last updated 03/18/10 09:30 AM
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It is not the fault of tax mules that tax guzzlers fell for the bogus sales pitch of the brokers of forced labor on the campaign trail.
 
Twitter
Chris Robinson
‏@gingerboyo
is the cider tax an effort to try and kill the economy in the southwest? pretty funny that cider is the governments new tax mule, though.
11:35 AM - 24 Mar 2010
 
Of Two Minds by Charles Hugh Smith
Is Now a Good Time to Buy a House?  (July 7, 2010)
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2. Homeowner as tax donkey. Cash-strapped cities and counties are increasingly turning to property taxes and parcel fees to raise millions of dollars, and if there are no “Prop 13” type limits on how high property taxes/fees can be jacked up without voter approval, then homeowners are a captive tax base which is ripe for exploitation: homeowners become tax donkeys, loaded up with ever higher taxes and fees and expected to stumble forward without complaint.
 
Some might say that renters end up paying higher taxes and fees, too, as landlords pass along these higher costs, but that’s not necessarily true: landlords can only pass on what the market will bear. If there is an oversupply of rentals available, then the price will be set by the market, not the landlord’s costs.
 
Homeowners are thus uniquely vulnerable to becoming tax donkeys. The mortgage might be fixed for 30 years, but the tax burdens are not.
   
The Mighty Wizard
September 05, 2010
A question for Labor Unions on Labor Day
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The biggest threat to American workers today is that Americans are increasingly faced with the prospect that they are only allowed to keep less and less of the pay that they work for, and the threat of an all encompassing federal leviathan that threatens to turn everyday Americans into tax mules working for someone else.
   
The Dollar Vigilante Blog
May 28, 2012
AMERIKA: KEEPING THE TAX MULES IN HARNESS
[Editor’s note: the following post is by Jim Karger, TDV Legal Correspondent]
If you are successful, the United Socialist States of Amerika does not want you to leave.  It is not because they like you but because you are paying them and they intend for you to continue to do so until your last breath.  They want you to stay so much that they are willing to threaten you, seize your assets, and imprison you, if necessary, to keep you and your money at home.
 
Zero Hedge
Guest Post: Tune In, Turn On, Opt Out
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/17/2013 12:14 -0400
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
What happens to everyone in the ruling Elites and those desperately trying to join the ruling Elites when the debt-serfs stop paying and the tax donkeys drift away to lower-cost, lower-income lifestyles?
     
Zero Hedge
Neofeudalism’s Tax Donkeys (Yes, You) And The Battle For Control Of Resources
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/10/2014 14:20 -0400
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Those who own the resources and influence the political control of those resources are the New Nobility in a pernicious Neofeudalism enforced by the very government that claims to serve the debt-serfs and tax donkeys.
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The primary role of small business owners and homeowners in the Status Quo is to labor for the government’s Upper Caste as uncomplaining tax donkeys. (I coined the term tax donkeys on July 7, 2010 and have found no earlier useage.)
 
Zero Hedge
Tax Donkeys: Rich Enough To Pay Most Of The Taxes, Not Rich Enough To Buy Politicians
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/08/2015 14:16 -0400
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
Real political representation must be bought, just like everything else in a market economy.
 
Mike Swanson (Wall Street Window) and I were discussing the difference between the 1% who earns $360,000 annually and up and those in the Oligarchy class—the .01% (our podcast: America’s Nine Socio-Eco-Political Classes).
 
The difference is the 1% remain Tax Donkeys: they pay most of the Federal and state income taxes, but are not wealthy enough to buy political influence.
 
In other words, the 1% (and indeed, the top 10%) have taxation but no representation. The political strings are pulled by a relative handful of super-wealthy individuals who use a thin slice of their wealth to fund political campaigns and lobbying.
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They are the Tax Donkeys that toil to pay for the corporate-state’s social welfare programs that keep the bottom 40% passive and the imperial structure that secures the primacy of the Deep State and Oligarchy.