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| (c)2016 Douglas W Davis |
Our dogs let us sleep a wee bit late this morning. They are used
to getting up and going out for their first constitutional of the morning at
5:30. Even on the weekends the two of them often start getting antsy around that
time and, if one of us is not awake, will start nudging us to get up and let
them out. My miniature Schnauzer will jump up on the bed, stand on my chest,
and stick his little nose right in my face to let me know he needs to go out.
This morning, the two of them overslept and didn’t wake me up
until nearly 6:30. I was starting to wake up and they took those stirrings as
their signal that I was ready to take them out.
This morning is starting off gray and overcast, but it was not
raining when I let the dogs out. Barely had I sat down and booted up the
computer when I heard the unmistakable sounds of rain on the sunroom roof. By
the time I got to the back door, our Schnauzer was already in the sunroom and
our Brittany was coming in at a run. The mini-Schnauzer hates getting wet.
Now the dogs are fed, the cats are fed, the coffee is brewed,
and I can sit down and begin on today’s topic.
Two hundred and forty years ago tomorrow, fifty-five men from
the thirteen British colonies along the Atlantic Coast of North America would
meet once again in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence, thus
declaring a new nation, these United States, as no longer being under the rule
of the British monarch, but being self-governing states. Why did these men do
this?
Most people believe the rebellion against the King was over
taxes. Indirectly, I suppose it was. The real gripe the Founding Fathers had
was with the British Parliament. Parliament had imposed taxes on the colonists
in order to help settle the debt incurred in what we here in the United States
call the French and Indian War, as well as to cover the continuing cost of
protecting and defending the colonies from, primarily, France and Spain.
What upset the colonists about his wasn’t so much being taxed
to help pay these bills, it was the idea that they, as loyal British subjects,
had no representation in Parliament. There was no one there to vote on their
behalf in the House of Commons. If you think back on your US History lessons,
you’ll remember the rallying cry of the American Revolution was, “No taxation
with representation.”
In the two hundred and forty years since the Declaration of
Independence was signed, we Americans have come to learn that taxation with
representation is not such a great thing either. When you add up income taxes,
sales taxes, telecommunications taxes, property taxes, and fuel taxes, all but
the lowest income earners pay a marginal rate of anywhere from fifty to sixty
percent of each dollar in taxes.
Each year the non-profit Tax Foundation calculates the day on
which, on average, the American taxpayer stops working to pay off his or her
tax bill – federal, state, and local. This year, 2016, Tax Freedom day, as it
has been dubbed, was April 24th. For the first one hundred and
fifteen days of this year, every dollar earned by American workers went to pay
his or her taxes. Americans work nearly one-third of the year just to pay their
tax bill.
Tax Freedom Day varies by state because each state has its own
peculiar way of collecting state and local taxes. The earliest Tax Freedom Day
comes in Mississippi. This year it was April 5th there. Connecticut
is the most taxed state in the nation. The Nutmeg State didn’t celebrate Tax
Freedom Day until May 21st this year.
Two hundred and forty years ago tomorrow, the thirteen
colonies that became the thirteen original states declared their independence
from Britain over the idea of taxation without representation. Twelve score
years later we have learned that taxation with representation is no picnic
either.
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
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