Everybody remembers learning about one of the central rallying cries of the American Revolution: “No taxation without representation!” Yes, the settlers in early America thought the idea of being forced to pay taxes without having a say in the decision-making of their overlords was very problematic.
In particular, the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was a small tax on tea imports on the colonies, who did not have representation in the British parliament; this led to the infamous Boston Tea Party. Seems pretty minuscule compared to today’s 74,608-page tax code, right? Fortunately for modern-day Americans, the founding fathers fixed that problem after they kicked the crown to the curb… except they didn’t.
Oops.
What I’m telling you is that taxation without representation persists today, and that it’s even worse now than when it sparked a revolution.
So let’s start with this meme I stumbled upon while surfing the interwebz yesterday:
I didn’t want to believe it, but it’s true. As the Independent Voter Network explains:
No comments:
Post a Comment