Posted on 04/16/2014 3:23:52 AM PDT by markomalley
When Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Revenue Act of 1913, it probably sounded like a good idea.
Most people would pay less in taxes and the prices of everyday goods would drop, he promised. And the rich would — finally! — start paying their fair share.
In those days, tax collection was a highly diffuse business with various states and localities collecting taxes at various rates. The federal government mostly skidded by on exorbitant and uneven tariffs, and on booze and tobacco taxes.
This was always tough and disorganized business for the federal government. Those hardships became especially acute for the federal government when it wanted to launch wars thousands of miles away on other continents.
And, anyway, who could question the motives of Woodrow Wilson?
He was a celebrated professor with a sterling Ivy League background who ran for president on the promise to govern sensibly and never go to war. He maintained a grand worldview and would later be awarded the Nobel Peace prize in the category of “world organizing” on his gallant promises to establish lasting peace to end World War I, which would become mankind’s last war.
What could possibly go wrong?
If Vice President Joseph R. Biden had been alive back then, he could have described Wilson as “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man!”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“We like the efficiency that allow purchase of imported goods at a price below those produced domestically. We live in a global market and take advantage of buying what we please.”
It has been nice while it lasted. Unfortunately the reserve currency status of the dollar is coming to an end. When it does, the ability of the Federal Reserve to print money to fund the current account and federal government deficits will also end.
The current generation of Americans inherited wealth accumulated through the hard work and productivity of past generations. We chose to live beyond our means through borrowing and at the same time dismantle the manufacturing economy that allowed the wealth to be accumulated. We are very much like children who inherit wealth and squander it instead of living productive lives. When the money runs out the individual has no friends, no resources and no skills to recover.
Once the dollar loses its reserve currency status, the rest of the world will no longer accept our dollars to purchase their manufactured goods and food. We will be a third world nation without the productive capacity (skilled people, industrial infrastructure, and investment capital) to restore our economy. The government will determine how to divide the scraps among the population.
Yep. As bad as Wilson was (and he was bad), at least he was a Natural Born Citizen.
Excellent post.
Woodrow Wilson was born & raised in Virginia. His presidential library is in Stanton, Virginia - in the Shenandoah valley. He is the first president after the Civil War from the states formerly in the Confederacy.
Immediately before he was president, he was the President of Princeton University.
The relevance of the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act was not the revenue from tariffs collected by America. The relevance was the tariffs other nations imposed on American products in retaliation.
Discovering what elevated the 1930s depression to become the Great Depression is an interesting exercise.
/sarcasm off/
If you go back through history, you'll find that trade always grows in a low-to-high scenario, where things are produced where the costs are lowest and consumed by those with the strongest purchasing power. This is true regardless of whether you're dealing with products or services -- which is why multi-millionaires don't work as landscapers, and Mexicans do landscaping work in the U.S. but not in Mexico. As time goes on, the nation, region or person with the highest standard of living has an increasingly difficult time being competitive with other nations, regions, and people.
It's a complicated issue that will never be "solved," but I'd make the case that advances in other areas -- like the advent of containerized shipping and the growth of global telecommunications networks -- has had a far bigger impact on changes in trade patterns over the last 50 years than most people realize.
Like Marx you defend gloBULLism and Free Trade. How progressive of you.
Imports during 1929 were only 4.2% of the United States’ GNP and exports were only 5.0%. Monetarists, such as Milton Friedman, who emphasize the central role of the money supply in causing the depression, note that the Smoot-Hawley Act only had a contributory effect on the entire U.S. economy.[21]
Also governor of New Jersey and yes, a graduate of Princeton and college professor.
Once again I am left to wonder if you even read the references you cite.
Sheesh!
I haven’t defended anything — any more than I would stand up and defend the sunrise this morning. I’ve simply explained it to you. If that’s “progressive” to you, then so be it.
Presidents Kennedy and Reagan proved that tax rates are the key determinant of tax revenues. It makes sense that tariff revenues were highest when tariff rates were lowest, that tariff revenues decreased as tariff rates increased, and that tariff revenues declined to near zero when tariff rates reached the punitive level that eliminated all profit. I am not arguing tariffs versus free trade, but merely observing that we always get more of what we reward and less of what we punish.
-- Karl Marx
So Karl is saying protectionism strengths the middle class and is a weapon against absolute government. Hmmm. Food for thought.
Excellent article by Charles Hurt, and good to see Woodrow Wilson receive the derision that his record as president deserves. Wilson was a tyrant who despised the Constitution and ignored it to the greatest extent he could get away with. Getting us into WWI was a terrible decision that set the USA on its ultimately-ruinous path to be the world’s policeman, busybody and sugar daddy, and Wilson enacted and twisted laws to punish and silence his political opponents. We Conservatives often view FDR as the architect of today’s welfare state, but the real structure of federal power was erected by the tyrannical academic, Woodrow Wilson.
In other words, the effect was relevant.
Two racists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.