There is currently a movement to provide reparations by certain members of Congress, academia, and, many of the Democrats that have declared that they are running for President in 2020. How would this even work, who would be eligible, and who would pay?
No one living today was a slave or a slave-owner. In addition, during the peak of slavery, very few Americans owned slaves; anywhere from 3%-to-7.4% of Americans appeared to own slaves. Also, it seems that there were 3,000 Blacks who owned 20,000 slaves in 1860; and, there were many Irish slaves.
Again, who would be eligible and who would pay? What about successful black people, e.g., judges, lawyers, doctors, nurses, actors, sports-figures, members of Congress, business executives, teachers and college professors? Would they pay or receive reparations? Would they have to prove they were ancestors of American slave-owners? What if their parents were of mixed races, i.e. one side owned slaves and the other side were slaves?
Another question to ponder for those individuals who are direct descendants from slaves brought to the United States: Are you better off being a United States citizen because of your ancestor’s sacrifice? The alternative may have been that you would never have been born, or, you’d be living in a third world country.
For the first 100 years after the ratification of the Constitution, the majority of Americans were the freest people that probably ever lived, due to the lack of government regulation and no income taxes. Unfortunately, this was also the time where slavery was allowed; and, about 15% of the population did not experience the liberty afforded to the majority of Americans.
During ancient times and up through the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 6, 1865–which provided that slavery shall no longer exist in the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction—slavery was all about economics and the inability of the slave to work and earn any money, unless agreed to by the slave-owner.
After the abolishment of slavery, this period of freedom lasted roughly 48-years. Then, on February 3, 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified—which gave Congress the power to tax all incomes, from whatever source derived—and, the stage was set to enslave the entire population of the United States, including the former slaves and their descendants which had been freed back in 1865.
When federal, state and local income taxes can take as much as 50% of one’s earnings; or, the average taxpayer has to work equivalent to the first 4-to-5 months of the year to cover their income tax bill, why do the majority of Americans believe they live in a free country? According to Dr Walter E. Williams, compulsory schooling and indoctrination has dumbed-down the American people.
Why was there no income tax when the Founders were alive? They understood that many immigrants fled Europe because of oppressive taxation, along with the fact that they were also tax evaders and rebels themselves; they read baron de Montesquieu’s book, The Spirit of Laws, published in English in 1751, in which he set forth his basic principles of taxation: Direct taxes (e.g., tax on the wages of labor) were dangerous and natural to slavery; indirect taxes or taxes on the sale of merchandise were more natural to liberty.
Because of this belief that an income tax on a person’s labor was tantamount to slavery, there was no peacetime income tax for the first 118 years of the American Republic. Does the average American understand this simple concept and the related history; has the average American read Montesquieu’s book; does the average American have any understanding of why immigrants came to American in the first place; and, that our Founders were rebels and tax-evaders themselves and made it almost impossible to tax incomes? Probably not; otherwise we would not have an income tax. The Revolution was fought because of what the American colonists believed was excessive taxation, which was negligible compared to what Americans face today!
The power-elites that control government also control our “K through Ph.D.” compulsory schooling and indoctrination system, which was setup to create law-abiding and conforming citizens; not to educate, nor promote self-reliance, and, certainly not to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of the American Founders and those that settled the western United States.
The power-elites in control of government encourage division. They pit women against men, black against white, poor against the rich, ad infinitum. They encourage victimization and promise things like reparations for all blacks in order to buy their votes.
Reparations… every hard-working income tax-paying American who has paid federal income taxes that exceeded 10% of their earned income since the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 are the individuals that are truly deserving of reparations. That is, everyone who has had their property confiscated, due to unjust tax laws and regulations, for the sole purpose of redistribution to others, are the people deserving of reparations.
Thanks to the income tax, we are all slaves now. If Americans truly want to be free and prosperous, they need to stop voting for candidates that promise to tax and regulate; and, redistribute the plunder to other special interest groups.
Please go to our website and sign our petition to abolish the IRS. Get a copy of The U.S. Individual Income Tax is Incompatible with a Free Society and, pass it around to your family, friends, neighbors, and associates. If enough people begin to realize the fraud perpetrated against them by the political establishment, we may have another shot at true freedom. It existed once for a period of about 100 years; it can happen again.
Dum Spiro, spero—While I breathe, I hope.
Slainte mhath,
Robert G. Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.
