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The Rise of Tax Slavery
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OnryAnRkst
Apr 10, 2002, 5:45:10 PM4/10/02
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by Joseph Sobran
Tax time approaches, and Americans are as always paying
H & R Block billions to help them save some of their wealth
from their ravenous government. Pitiful, in a way: it under-
lines the grim but unacknowledged fact that the government
is their enemy and they have to hire protection from it.
But don't we enjoy "self-government"? Well, if we have
it, I'd hardly say we enjoy it. True, we aren't being taxed
by the monarch of Great Britain, but our American-born
rulers claim far more of our wealth than the British mon-
archs ever did.
The first income tax was imposed during the Civil War
under President Abraham Lincoln - you know, the Great Eman-
cipator. He is known for abolishing chattel slavery in
seceding states; he is less well-known for introducing tax
slavery in all the states. That's one reason why the liber-
tarian Lysander Spooner opposed both sides in the war: he
said the South was fighting for chattel slavery, while the
North was fighting for political slavery. Political slavery
won.
The government was just getting its foot in the door.
The top tax rate at first was 5 per cent. And that was only
on relatively high incomes.
The U.S. Supreme Court, which in those days paid some
attention to the Constitution, struck down the income tax
several times. So, in the days of Woodrow Wilson, the Six-
teenth Amendment was adopted, giving Congress the power to
impose an income tax.
Again, the first tax rates were low by today's stan-
dards. A bachelor had to make about $50,000 a year in to-
day's money before he paid a 1 per cent tax; the top rate
was 7 per cent, and only the very rich paid it.
But within a few years the country was at war - "the
war to end all wars," you'll recall - and the tax rates were
raised very high. Over time, the tax code became enormously
complex, while the debasement of money drove ordinary people
into tax brackets originally aimed at the rich. The govern-
ment, needless to say, was impenitent and unapologetic about
what looked very much like a bait-and-switch operation.
Along the way, the Federal Government greatly expanded
its own powers, no longer bothering to amend the Constitu-
tion. The welfare state, though flagrantly unconstitutional,
created broad political support for usurped powers. Franklin
Roosevelt, a president of multifaceted treachery, conscious-
ly adopted the demagogic strategy of buying votes by soaking
the rich.
Federal programs, all unconstitutional, have continued
to multiply and expand. We now live in what Hilaire Belloc
dubbed "the Servile State," in which one part of the popula-
tion is forced to support the other. Yet the average Ameri-
can is unaware of the total transformation and repudiation
of the original American Republic. To the extent he knows of
it at all, he has been taught to think of it as "progress."
He doesn't realize that most of the taxes he pays are spent
for purposes unauthorized by the Constitution.
Today liberals howl in protest when President Bush
proposes to cut the top tax rate to 33 per cent! One might
ask whether there is any moral limit to what the government
can take from us; but the point is that, under the Sixteenth
Amendment, there is no constitutional limit.
That amendment, the welfare state, and shifty "inter-
pretation" of Congress's power to regulate commerce have
combined to enable the Federal Government to impose a so-
cialist or fascist system while feebly pretending to honor
the Constitution. It illustrates how tyranny may creep in
under the outward forms of traditional law.
Will Americans ever awaken to what has happened to
their country? Some vigilant souls have seen it all along.
Many were aware of it long before I was. No doubt more are
learning every day.
Tax time approaches, and Americans are as always paying
H & R Block billions to help them save some of their wealth
from their ravenous government. Pitiful, in a way: it under-
lines the grim but unacknowledged fact that the government
is their enemy and they have to hire protection from it.
But don't we enjoy "self-government"? Well, if we have
it, I'd hardly say we enjoy it. True, we aren't being taxed
by the monarch of Great Britain, but our American-born
rulers claim far more of our wealth than the British mon-
archs ever did.
The first income tax was imposed during the Civil War
under President Abraham Lincoln - you know, the Great Eman-
cipator. He is known for abolishing chattel slavery in
seceding states; he is less well-known for introducing tax
slavery in all the states. That's one reason why the liber-
tarian Lysander Spooner opposed both sides in the war: he
said the South was fighting for chattel slavery, while the
North was fighting for political slavery. Political slavery
won.
The government was just getting its foot in the door.
The top tax rate at first was 5 per cent. And that was only
on relatively high incomes.
The U.S. Supreme Court, which in those days paid some
attention to the Constitution, struck down the income tax
several times. So, in the days of Woodrow Wilson, the Six-
teenth Amendment was adopted, giving Congress the power to
impose an income tax.
Again, the first tax rates were low by today's stan-
dards. A bachelor had to make about $50,000 a year in to-
day's money before he paid a 1 per cent tax; the top rate
was 7 per cent, and only the very rich paid it.
But within a few years the country was at war - "the
war to end all wars," you'll recall - and the tax rates were
raised very high. Over time, the tax code became enormously
complex, while the debasement of money drove ordinary people
into tax brackets originally aimed at the rich. The govern-
ment, needless to say, was impenitent and unapologetic about
what looked very much like a bait-and-switch operation.
Along the way, the Federal Government greatly expanded
its own powers, no longer bothering to amend the Constitu-
tion. The welfare state, though flagrantly unconstitutional,
created broad political support for usurped powers. Franklin
Roosevelt, a president of multifaceted treachery, conscious-
ly adopted the demagogic strategy of buying votes by soaking
the rich.
Federal programs, all unconstitutional, have continued
to multiply and expand. We now live in what Hilaire Belloc
dubbed "the Servile State," in which one part of the popula-
tion is forced to support the other. Yet the average Ameri-
can is unaware of the total transformation and repudiation
of the original American Republic. To the extent he knows of
it at all, he has been taught to think of it as "progress."
He doesn't realize that most of the taxes he pays are spent
for purposes unauthorized by the Constitution.
Today liberals howl in protest when President Bush
proposes to cut the top tax rate to 33 per cent! One might
ask whether there is any moral limit to what the government
can take from us; but the point is that, under the Sixteenth
Amendment, there is no constitutional limit.
That amendment, the welfare state, and shifty "inter-
pretation" of Congress's power to regulate commerce have
combined to enable the Federal Government to impose a so-
cialist or fascist system while feebly pretending to honor
the Constitution. It illustrates how tyranny may creep in
under the outward forms of traditional law.
Will Americans ever awaken to what has happened to
their country? Some vigilant souls have seen it all along.
Many were aware of it long before I was. No doubt more are
learning every day.
It may seem doubtful that the truth will penetrate
enough people to reverse the trend. Passivity, ignorance,
cowardice, venality, and sheer discouragement will always
keep the majority acquiescent. The government's greatest
strength is the enormous numbers who depend for their income
on its abuse of the taxing power. They sense that a return
to constitutional government would be a disaster for them.
But a vigorous and intelligent minority, if it refuses
to surrender, can do wonders. The good news is that such
a minority already exists, and it is growing.
March 20, 2002
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