System is overwhelmed.
The black market, underground economy, barter and trade, back-alley trade, whatever you want to call it, shall become the base of the economy in coming months and perhaps years. A LOT of business will be “off the books”, so as not to be subject to taxation, and a goodly portion of production of hard goods will take place in people’s garages and back yards.
For pointers on how to do this, look up old copies of “The Mother Earth News”. They started out as “environmentalists”, but they were also very much into “screwing the Man”. Which means, tax avoidance (a different thing than tax evasion, by the way), which has the secondary effect of denying revenue to the Federal Government. Starve the beast, live off the grid, and it shall wither on the vine.
Of course, the folks at Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians of Waco had something of the same idea, and you know what AG Janet Reno did to THOSE people.
Semper Paratus. And this does not just apply to the Coast Guard.
“A LOT of business will be off the books, so as not to be subject to taxation...”
Hence, the need for IRS agents to have a LOT of ammo.