"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
-Thomas Jefferson
Wow. Over 200 years ago. What has happened since then to make us think we're smarter than previous generations? We have public schools, we have the internet to look up anything we want. We have planes and cars with a road infrastructure and airports wherever we want to go so that we can learn hands on and commit to memory. We think we're so much smarter than those who lived in the 1700's. If that were true, we would not be tolerating being taxed like we do, we would not tolerate our liberties being taken away and our constitution being voided. We would not tolerate wars overseas and sacrificing lives for the profit of a few (who do not risk their lives at the same time). We would say "No!" and back it up with force if need be. We would be proactive and do what we can politically to make things right for our towns, our states, our nation.
Here is a sample of taxes imposed upon us that we are forced to pay (thanks to voyiatzis @ blogspot)
A Partial List of Taxes Americans Pay
Accounts Receivable Tax
Automobile Registration Tax
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
CDL License Tax
Dog License Tax
Estate Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (Tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (Tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Parking Meters
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Taxes
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Toll Booth Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and non-Recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines
Trailer Registration Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Water-craft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents/gallon)
Federal Income Tax
Jefferson didn't pay these taxes. Who's smarter now? He ensured he didn't have to pay these taxes. So here's my question to you (and I ask for a why to your answer)...
Would you rather be alive today or in 1777?
That's all for now. Let me know what you think and as always, thanks for visiting the site.
Peace,
Rich
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4 comments:
this is a hard question.
my knee jerk answer would be i'd rather
have been alive then. I don't generally think of myself as
a feminist, but being female in this time period would
have a gross amount of difference then being male.
I'm not saying that I would be unhappy, necessarily, as a
women in 1777. But that is just me, i'm sure a good amount
of women wouldn't. Socially there were a lot of crappy things,
but they had no rights politically either.
If we could all be equal at that point in history, I'd chose then
hands down.
-taxes suck, but I have democratic leanings, so my tax tolerance
is higher.
-Biologically- natural selection was premier over medicine.
Now, we cheat death everyday. The healthy survived and
procreated. If a husband and wife couldnt have a child, they
accepted it, and didn't spend tons of money, and manipulate there
bodies with tons of hormones. I have a personal problem
with that subject so i'll end that there.
People are not kept alive with machines. Nothing upsets me
more then people with no quality of life being kept alive to
no end. I've seen to many of my family suffer through "there's
one more thing we can try" and "they might come out of it"s.
It's not pretty and its has no humanity.
-Simplicity-Living in a more basic time is my ideal.(despite that
i'm on my laptop writing this) I think a good amount of our problem,
here and all over the world, is a disconnection from reality.
The more technologically advanced we've become, the more
we've used it to disconnect from one another.
Just because you can talk to anyone anywhere in the world,
doesn't make you anymore happy in your daily life if your sitting
alone infront of a computer, and are cut off from the people
just outside your door.(or inside for that matter)
Life is no doubt easier physically now. Water comes out of a pipe, as
needed, in your heated/airconditioned home. Another pipe
takes the waste out. We have an abundance of linens and clothing
can bathe in the home with hot water, everyday, at any time of
day. We don't need to go out for entertainment, 200 channels
of everything you can think of wired right into a box in your living
room. (not that you'd have time or energy for that if you lacked
all the convenience of our modern improvement)
Of course this list could go on and on.
Glad to see a new post.
It was good. Very thought provoking.
sarah
hi again. I have to make a correction or more accurately, complete something I posted here.
I got off on something else and didn't say anything at all really about the tax issue. Here it goes.
No doubt, being free from all the afore mentioned taxes is ideal. I honestly don't remember a ton about taxes in our early history. I'll have to read more on it. But, I know today we're supposedly on the taxation with representation, which is a load of crap. Most of our representatives are deep into there own adgenda with little concern for what the people who elected them need or want. I don't have a problem with the idea of taxes, when the people being taxed agree with the reason, and the use of the money. Like, say, people in a town want better roads, they vote on whether they're willing to take a tax on something (for a limited time) to repair there roads. If they agreed then to vote on what would be taxed. As the set up is now, adding half a percent to property taxes would seem like an idea. Anyway...
I am opposed to federal income tax, end of point.
As lovely as it would be to just purge our entire governing body of taxes, I believe, we'd be further up shit creek without a paddle.
As we all no our government has become an experiment in stupid. I think about our debt, and these freaking BS stimulus checks, and feel like my head is going to explode! I swear, they're purposefully trying to make our money even more useless!
Ok. That's all I've got. Feel free to crucify me for my liberal leanings, all the parties are BS anyway.
I think about this a lot these days. The obvious answer, as Sarah has stated, is that you would rather live then but upon further review, I think that the times are not so different as to prefer one to the other. I say this because of the atrocities being committed against the American people, as well as the world, by our government are similar in many ways to the crimes against the colonists by the British Monarchy in the 1700’s. There is a total lack of true representation in the government. True there are elections held in which someone is “elected”, but to the authenticity of those elections, there is no way of verifying. Even as we speak, more and more states are moving to an all electronic election process providing no paper trail back up. And as anyone with half a brain knows, a computer can be programmed to do anything that the programmer wants it to. The only way to verify that it is not compromised is to look at the basic lines of code in the programming….if you know what to look for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y64Vqtdheeg (at 2:33 in to the movie)
Some examples from the Declaration of Independence:
-To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
-He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Pres. Bush has said time and again that he is above the law and that the Administrative branch answers to no one.
-He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
Bush has rallied the senior Republican members of Congress to hold out on critical votes causing meetings to run long into the morning hours of the next day, resulting in the measures themselves to be dropped for shear convenience.
-He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
While not actually dissolving the Congress, he has stated repeatedly that what they say means nothing to him or his cronies.
-He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
By acting as the Congress has no power, he leaves the critical security of this nation in the hands of himself, and himself alone. The Congress being strong-armed into decisions at the hands of the Powers That Be.
-He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
This is as close to the immigration debacle that you can get.
-He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
The Attorney General has no real power in a judiciary matter. He is the liaison between the Administrative and Judicial branches.
-He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
As no judges have lost their jobs as yet, which I know of, there are the cases of the multiple members of the US Marshal Service that were terminated under shady circumstances.
-He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
Duh….Homeland Security.
-He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
Repeated activation of the National Guard by the Fed Gov, not the state, and the use of Mercenaries for disaster relief. I.e. Blackwater USA.
So to summarize, there is not that big of a difference between now and then except for the technology being used today. It was a lot easier back then to rally a resistance force together and organize operations. Today, there is no form of communication that is not monitored by the Government.
All and all, I think back I would like to live then. It was a simpler time.
Good Post. Keep posting this kind.
Dan
Wow... deep and lengthy posts in response. Now i just wish we could get more than 2 people to respond. Invite others, please. I'll post a response to your opinions and topics brought up here on this page in the next couple of days. Thanks for sticking with me guys.
Rich
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