By Paul Mullen | Miami Herald
There’s a lot to celebrate this Independence Day, as we mark the 249th anniversary of our national divorce from Great Britain and the abuses of King George III.
Yet under the flags and fireworks, the hotdogs and hamburgers, and the checkered tablecloths camouflaged in red, white, and blue, lies an uncomfortable, ironic truth: You’re not as free as you think.
This may sound absurd, inappropriate, even unpatriotic. How could this be, in “the land of the free”?
The fact is each of us is shackled by invisible economic, regulatory, and civil chains. Hidden in plain sight is a tangled, ever-expanding web of federal, state, and local taxes, programs, regulations, spending, and debt-the overwhelming majority of which unjustly constrain and violate our God-given natural rights.
Perhaps the most egregious example is the progressive federal income tax, which gives the government first claim on your earnings and punishes you in direct proportion to your annual productivity (the amount of service you provide in the marketplace).
Though seemingly as unavoidable as death, the federal income tax is a relatively new invention in our country’s history, dating back only to 1913, when the top rate was 7% and only 1% of Americans paid any income tax at all.
Today, combined federal, state, and local taxes are over 30% of American’s income. This means that the average American is losing almost 30 cents of every dollar they earn to taxes. At this point it’s worth remembering that the Sons of Liberty hosted their famous Boston Tea Party after a 3% tax on tea.
READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT THE MIAMI HERALD
Paul Mullen is the RISE Campaign Coordinator and a Senior Associate for Marketing at The Heritage Foundation.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.