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Reformed Loser

 

24 January 2008

Definitely worth a mention, a new Atari-inspired chiptune album by Stu at 8bitpeoples.

I think I'll be going to PorcFest in June, and a friend of mine emailed me earlier tonight, attaching a paypal receipt from the Von Mises Institute. I wonder what he bought?

 

for this post

 
Blogger LT Dan Says:

A lesson on Taxes

Our country was founded partly on an aversion to taxes laden by an unrepresentative body (Parliament). While the British Parliament claimed to represent all British citzens (including colonials), Americans, with their own traditions of self-government, rejected that notion. Patriots claimed "No taxation without representation." It is important to note that caveat; at no point did Americans reject the concept of taxation, only their lack of say in the matter.

Fast forward through independence and this issue arose again as a challenge to the new government in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. Western Pennsylvania farmers resented an "excessive" excise tax on whiskey they produced. (This being before adequate trans-appalachian transportation networks were established, whereby the distilling of corn became their primary means of living). Nevertheless, harkening back to the Revolution, just some 13 years prior, the farmers chanted "no taxation without representation!", burned custom houses, refused taxes, and physically assaulted tax collectors.

The Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, with full support of President George Washington heartily disagreed. The farmers had elected their representatives in New York. Those representatives approved the taxes. Rebellion and refusal to pay were illegitimate. Washington personally led an army of 15,000 troops to the region and the farmers quickly dispersed.

The lesson is clear. At no point in American history have Americans rejected the right of a truly representative government to tax its citizens. Disputes over tax policy are, granted, endemic. Yet the response is not rejection of said taxes, and certainly not rejection of the legitimacy of taxation, but rather holding one's representatives accountable.

The entire "anti-tax" messianic obsession of some libertarians has no historical antecedent. Furthermore, it has no logical basis. Taxes are no more than the actions of those dutifully selected to represent one's community. Therefore, the issue one must have, if there be a disagreement over tax policy, is not the right to tax, just the decision to do so. The power to affect said policy resides solely at the ballot.

'Nuff said.

 

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