Bob Calco wrote: >>> History quiz for you: On what did the federal government subsist, and >>> >> more >> >>> importantly _why_, prior to 1913? >>> >>> - Bob >>> >>> >> I'm not exactly sure of the answer to your question, but I'm sure your >> going to tell me. Anyway, my guess would be that at some point after >> the American revolution and independence, the USA created its own >> currency. Perhaps the USA government was financed by deficits and >> individual contributions before the income tax system was developed. >> >> Regards, >> >> LelandJ >> > > Wow, even I didn't think you'd flub that one so spectacularly. I should know > better. > > No, the entire revenue was paid for by a tariff on articles of manufacture > ranging from 10% ad valorem when it was first adopted, very deliberately, by > our Founders in 1789, to a height of 40% ad valorem during various periods > in our pre WWI history. There was no "favorite nation" status---all articles > of foreign manufacture were taxed, period, although often different products > were taxed at different rates (yea even then the urge to micromanage and > reward lobbyists was occasionally too strong even for our elder statesmen of > the past to resist--such is the way of all flesh). > > Conversely, by design of our Founders there was no federal tax on domestic > labor whatsoever. An American capitalist employing his capital in the > support of American labor and industry also paid no tax at all to the > federal government, neither did his workers. I can supply endless quotes by > the Founders and various statesmen through the first 150 years that affirm > this policy was intentional, and had its intended effect. This policy was > the key to our large-scale capital accumulation and ascendency to superpower > status during the first 150 years of our existence as a nation. > > The debate in Washington was always between a High Tariff vs. a Very High > Tariff Policy, until the modern era, when statism and social engineering > experiments became all the rage, and the financiers saw these extremely > costly utopian social schemes as a way to make usury popular again. > > Chronic deficit spending is a modern phenomenon, and seems essential to the > hocus pocus behind fractional reserve banking. Prior to the income tax, the > government could not spend more than it actually received in revenue. Today > it can pull money out of the great big credit card in the sky, and tax > generations that don't even exist yet. > > After 1913, and through the 1950's, the government practically abolished all > tariffs and today they actively promote sending American capital to employ > foreign labor through the tax code, which literally punishes capital > investment domestically. Now the debate is between a High But Somewhat Less > Progressive Income Tax and a Very High and More Progressive Income Tax. > Except now because of these trade and tax policies of the last century, > nearly 150 years of uninhibited capital accumulation has been wiped out, and > we have no manufacturing base to spur real capital accumulation moving > forward; consequently our transition to a third rate economic power over the > next couple of decades is all but assured. > > This has been a thoroughly bipartisan effort and both parties deserve infamy > for it, despite their very different ideological reasons for supporting the > policy. > > - Bob > > > Customs Duty - a tariff or tax on the import of or export of goods. When a ship arrives at port the custom's officer charges a tax on all items declared to be brought into or out of the country.
Excise Tax - Excise taxes are taxes paid when purchases are made on a specific good, such as gasoline, liquor and cigarettes. Excise taxes are often included in the price of the product. There are also excise taxes on activities, such as on wagering or on highway usage by trucks. Excise Tax has several general excise tax programs. One of the major components of the excise program is motor fuel. Estate and gift taxes - A tax on the value of property transferred by gift or by last will and testament. Ad-valorem tax (eg Property Tax) -a tax based on the value of real estate or personal property. Sales Tax - A tax based on the sales price of items purchased. Income Tax - A tax on the income earned by an entity. Have I left any tax out, Bob? It seem to me, we are being taxed from about ever angle possible, and still can't fund all the government programs everyone wants. So Bob, what the right combination of taxes that would restore America to her former glory and greatness. So far as deficit spending is concerned, congress will always find ways to borrow the money needed to live about her means: #----------------------------- Excerpt: One of the anomalies of the “dismal science” of economics is that it accepts the fiction of the nation state and tries to deal with the “economic system” in the context of nationalism. It becomes obvious how absurd this is if we ask ourselves what a “national physics” or a “national biology “ would be? The pretensions of economists to regard economics as a “science” is destroyed by the absurdity of a “national economics.” Both socialists and capitalists tend to fall into this trap, but perhaps socialists even more often than capitalists. Nothing, as Solzhenitsyn has pointed out in the case of Russia and China, is more virulent and dangerous than Marxist nationalists who threaten to go to war with each other to protect the purity of their ideology. Perhaps the best illustration of not only the absurdity but the insidiousness of “national economics” is the present money system. Under the present system, whether capitalist or socialist, each country has its own currency (dollar, pound, franc, ruble, yen, etc.), which it protects tenaciously and, in fact, uses as a means to accomplish its purposes short of war, or to wage war. Money is a weapon of the state used both to keep its own citizens under control and to maintain its control over other parts of the world. The ability of the state to create money through its bond-issuing power (not to be confused with savings bonds that citizens buy), without resorting to taxes, is both the primary cause of the present high inflation and the reason why President Johnson did not need the support of the American people to wage war in Vietnam. When Johnson decided to step up the Vietnam War in 1965, he did not go to the American people and ask for more taxes. That would have been unpopular. He simply printed money through bond issue. While this is called counterfeiting when private citizens do it, economists consider it perfectly acceptable when the government does it. Because the citizens of each state pay for it in the form of inflation, it could also be called a hidden tax—or taxation without representation. In his recent book about money, J. K. Galbraith demonstrates how almost every war in history, including the American and French Revolutions, were paid for with printed, worthless money. (Galbraith neglects to include the Vietnam War. He stops with the Civil War, so I infer that for historians it is safe to get only within one hundred years of the present time.) http://www.schumachersociety.org/publications/essays_swann/new_world_bank_jm.pdf or http://tinyurl.com/2mdkzm Regards, LelandJ > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
