Taxation without Representation

One of the clarion calls of the American revolution was "No Taxation without Representation". This phrase alone is likely the most identified of the rhetorical lines used to stir up the masses against British rule.

And how far have we come in this time?

Strangely, we have come full circle. For again we are demanding taxes of those without representation. Who? You might ask, is so unfortunate to be taxed without the benefit of political representation. The answer is, all the tax payers!

This may well strike you as an odd statement, for even just recently many millions of Americans marched their way into voting booths and flexed their political might to pick out a new crop of representatives.

But who actually went to the polls? Two distinct classes of people, the taxpayers, and the non-payers. Roughly 1/3 of all tax returns filed in 2004 had no tax liability*. That means 1/3 of the people are voting on how the rest of the 2/3 of the populations taxes is going to be spent. You combine that with an approximately even split of conservatives and liberals on the taxpayers side of things and the outcome is clear. The non-taxed people are wagging the dog!

They are the biggest swing voters in the system, and how do you think they will react to any candidate or party that might take away their non-tax status? How will they react to any group that offers to give them even more? And how can the taxed, or more properly named, enslaved, ever break free of this?

There is only solution. The elected must be unwilling and unable to bribe the electorate. This cannot be possible in the current system. The ability to offer deductions and special tax breaks to selected groups is the ability to bribe the electorate. So long as this system exists the tax payers will remain taxed without true representation for those elected will be in a constant state of conflict of interest. They must either choose the good of the taxpayers, at the expense of themselves or choose themselves.

We must level the playing field by demanding the fair tax. This is the only way to remove the ability of those in DC to bribe the electorate.

* http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/542.html