Posted on 11/04/2019 2:17:57 PM PST by knarf
I'm having difficulty formulating my failing brain.
Before 1913 we operated just fine (it seems) without taxes but (and so the meme goes), now everything operates BECAUSE of taxes.
The federal government used to operate on tariffs before the Sixteenth Amendment.
Whoops; posted too soon. The Sixteenth Amendment was Wilson’s first step towards implementation of the Second Plank of Communism, which stipulates “(a) heavy progressive or graduated income tax”.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/14268-before-the-income-tax
The 16th amendment was by far the worst man made calamity to befall our country.
Tariffs promote domestic industry, US workers and generate revenue. win-win-win.
And they sold the income tax as a tax only the “rich” would pay.
Seriously, look it up.
Who cares if it passed if the other guy was going to pay for it right?
The income tax was the worst mistake. Second worst was allowing political parties, which were warned against by President Washington and the Founders.
The USA used to use Tariffs to generate revenue for the Federal Gov’t. Then the socialists decided they could gain control over the people by direct taxation of the population. And, the socialists among us have been trying to tax us to death ever since.
“The 16th amendment was by far the worst man made calamity to befall our country.”
The 17th and 19th aren’t far behind.
L
Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.Everything is all right; the Uniparty has disallowed any other party or parties.
— Communist Goal #15
Pretty friggin much dude.
You cannot become the preeminent financial actor in the world overnight. Massive government spending, starting with WWI and lasting until today has pushed us into a world leader role.
That has never been sustainable—going back to Rome, France, Spain, The Dutch, Great Britain, and now us.
The tide WILL turn eventually. Most people in the world are ready for it. We are not.
Until 1913, customs duties (tariffs) and excise taxes were the primary sources of federal revenue.[3] During the War of 1812, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander J. Dallas made the first public proposal for an income tax, but it was never implemented.[4] The Congress did introduce an income tax to fund the Civil War through the Revenue Act of 1861.[5] It levied a flat tax of three percent on annual income above $800. This act was replaced the following year with the Revenue Act of 1862, which levied a graduated tax of three to five percent on income above $600 and specified a termination of income taxation in 1866. The Civil War income taxes, which expired in 1872, proved to be both highly lucrative and drawing mostly from the more industrialized states, with New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts generating about 60 percent of the total revenue that was collected.[6] During the two decades following the expiration of the Civil War income tax, the Greenback movement, the Labor Reform Party, the Populist Party, the Democratic Party and many others called for a graduated income tax.[6]
There was also an income tax during the Civil War.
Prior to 1913 the US Government had two principle duties. Delivering the mail and national defense. During most of the pre-1913 period the army was smaller than the modern day NYPD. The navy became respectably sized in the last two decades preceding the outbreak of the First World War. If that’s the sum of your big responsibilities government can be run on a shoestring budget, and usually was.
Taxes came from two major sources. Tariffs and a Federal excise tax on alcoholic beverages (beer and booze).
The most powerful political lobby in the history of the United States was the Anti Saloon League. They realized that in order to get a Federal law or constitutional amendment passed banning alcoholic drinks, they would need an alternative source for revenue. So they threw their support behind the income tax.
They also supported the 17th amendment on the theory that they could not as easily intimidate senators who were not directly elected. And they supported what would become the 19th amendment on the theory that men would never willingly ban the bottle. So they would need women voters. And they appear to have been right. If you look at the history of female suffrage, every state that granted women the right to vote soon passed laws restricting or outright prohibiting alcoholic beverages.
It was never codified into the Constitution, though, and never stipulated the abolition of apportionment among the states on the basis of population (the Sixteenth Amendment abolished Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4).
The tax levied was a flat rate of 3 percent on annual incomes over $800, equivalent to $23,402 in today’s money.
If not taxes, how?
Debt, that is how. The IRS and FED need each other to survive.
Actually prior to 1913 debts were rare - usually just in war time.
Corollary:
We expect all competent adults achieve financial independence within about 40 years.
You’d think a competent government could achieve financial independence in 225 years including the ability to literally print money.
16th amendment opened the door. Without a balanced budget amendment and unthrotheld ceiling debt, there’s no stopping this runaway train.
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