Taxes. It was one of the primary causes of the American Revolutionary War.
The expensive Seven Years War (also known in part as the French and Indian War) left England financially strapped. So they turned to British colonists to help replenish England’s coffers, after all, part of this engagement was fought on American soil (in present day United States and Canada) on behalf of those colonists—to protect them and allow them to expand westward.
Ironically, the duty on sugar and molasses was actually reduced during this time, however, with stricter enforcement, colonists ended up paying more. Then there was the addition of the Stamp Tax, which was required on all legal documents. The tea tax, the tobacco tax, the whiskey tax…and of course, who can forget the exemption of the tea-tax for the British East-India Company which basically meant that colonial tea producers could not compete.  Thus a “protest” called the Boston Tea Party took place, where colonists destroyed a shipment of tea from the East-India Company, which was followed by the implementation of the Intolerable Acts, and so on and so on.
I’m no historian, you can read more in any American history book or even online, but essentially colonists were taxed on most consumer goods and the biggest gripe about this was that these taxes were being levied without what colonists felt was “adequate representation”. So to jump forward, the colonists revolted and eventually won their independence from England.
Now what? Well, a government can’t run without money, so the newly formed United States government implemented tariffs and excise taxes on basically the same things Britain had before, only now citizens (at least white, male, land owners) had a bigger say on what those taxes were.
Since then, there have been periods of time when the federal government has used a sales (or consumption) taxation model for revenue, especially during war efforts. The first federal income tax was implemented in 1862, once again to help with a war effort (Civil War). This was initially a whopping 3% for most citizens. This income tax was repealed in 1872—when it was felt the tax was no longer needed. In 1892 an income tax was enacted again, this time at a rate of 2% for the wealthiest Americans, but it was struck down as unconstitutional. It wasn’t until 1913 with the passage of the 16th Amendment that it was legal to assess taxes without regard to census or equal apportionment among the states. The income tax withholding or the “pay as you go” method was adopted during World War II.
So where are we now? Well, there are still tariffs and excise taxes, but we also pay land ownership taxes, possession taxes, sales (or consumption) taxes, federal income taxes, state income taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, “sin” taxes, and luxury taxes, among many others. Heck we pay taxes we don’t even realize we are paying! I would almost bet by the time I add it up, I get to keep or spend less of what I make than I pay out in taxes. But I still don’t pay enough to keep the government(s) running at its current level. So, our federal government is borrowing money to make up the shortfall—which is completely irresponsible. There isn’t even a long-term plan to pay it back, just plans to borrow more.
This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue. It is an American problem. We are becoming a bunch of self-important, spoiled brats who think we are entitled to whatever we want, whenever we want—just because we are Americans.
Something needs to be done and, sadly, this is not going to be an easy problem to fix. It’s time to stop blindly throwing money at the government and start making it manage its expenses. It’s time to cut out unessential spending and tighten our belts. It’s going to take sacrifices by everyone, and quite honestly, it’s not going to be pleasant. But, if we go too much further down this road we are going to be incapable of fixing it ourselves.
Then what? Who is going to clean up the mess we’ve created? I can tell you this much, it won’t be a knight in shining armor. Most likely our savior will be doing it for his own-self interest and there will be a high price to pay—mainly our freedom. Is this how we want our American history books to end? Is this really the legacy we want to leave for our children?
It is time for America to grow up. It is time to start acting responsibly.