A Memorial Day Thanks
You will find no federal holiday dedicated to our love of taxes. There will be no parades in honor of taxes. No ceremonies, concerts or TV specials. This is because many in the US think of taxes as a burden, this heavy weight on our collective shoulders that “isn’t fair.” Some folks even dare to say that they have never benefitted from our system of taxation. Those folks are wrong. In fact, it is completely fair to say that our country is the country that it is today because of taxation. Our history as a country is deeply affected by our system of taxation: the wars that we fought and won have all been financed by a system of taxation. All that has changed, really, from war to war is the kinds and levels of taxation.
In the late 18th century, in order to pay off debts from the Revolutionary War, Congress imposed a number of taxes on such luxury items as alcohol, tobacco, sugar and some real property. A few short years later, Congress imposed additional excise taxes to pay for the War of 1812. Those [...]