Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. While Newton was describing this phenomenon in relation to physics, the basic principle also applies to society in general.
For instance, after the death of George Floyd in 2020, many municipalities in the United States took action to “defund the police” to some degree or another. Of course, this action produced an equal and opposite reaction: Crime spiked as criminals became emboldened due to a reduced police presence.
Since the summer of 2020, the “defund" movement has expanded, with some calling for the defunding of ICE, the IRS and even the FBI. Although I am somewhat sympathetic to calls for defunding the IRS, I’m also well aware that if the IRS were to be “defunded,” the U.S. economy would likely collapse.
