Brighten your smile with Urine gum.
Posted on 04/16/2016 7:29:31 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Taxes may be as certain as death, but they've changed a lot. Over the centuries, governments have levied taxes on everything from facial hair to the right to cover up—and officials accepted payments of beers, beds, and even broomsticks.
Here, from history, are a few taxes we’re glad to not have to pay anymore:
Rome's Toilet Tax Ancient Romans valued urine for its ammonia content. They found the natural enemy of dirt and grease valuable for laundering clothes and even whitening teeth. And like all valuable products, there was a scheme to tax it.
Emperor Vespasian (r. A.D. 69-79) earned a pretty penny by taxing the trade in urine that was gathered at public restrooms. But even some wealthy Romans considered this odious.
“When [Vespasian's] son Titus blamed him for even laying a tax upon urine, he applied to his nose a piece of the money he received in the first installment, and asked him if it stunk. And he replying no, 'And yet,' said he, 'it is derived from urine,'” wrote Suetonius in The Lives of the Caesars circa A.D. 120.
Ottoman "Blood" Tax's Heavy Toll
Ottoman rulers made non-Muslim subjects pay taxes with what they held most dear—their children. This was known as the “blood tax” among fearful families.
From the early 15th to the late 17th centuries, officials periodically took groups of young Christian boys from families living under Ottoman rule, converted them to Islam, and handed them over to the sultan.
The boys endured a five-to-eight-year military training while also laboring for the state at workshops, farms, ships, and construction sites. “Of course they were also the base of the [elite] Janissary army,” explains Gülay Yılmaz, a historian at Akdeniz University in Turkey.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
I pay a 10% higher tax rate than 0bama and I would like to know why.
Don’t give the government any more ideas!
Beer tax.....same thing..
Kind of already do if you are paying a sewer tax.
Well, I guess you could call public sewage a form of urine tax.
Not sure I’m ready for the urine applications though it does sound interesting.
“Honey, can you do the laundry?”
“Piss on it!”
There’s a very good and readable book called The Ghost Map which is about the cholera outbreak in London in, I think, 1850. The author goes into detail about the people who gather dog poo, clean septic tanks, collect urine, etc. Each had his specific task and were paid in specific ways. The dog poo was used to clean leather I believe. The knackers carted off dead horses and other large beasts. I remember arriving at a stable once where an old horse had died during the night. They were waiting for the knacker. Even though the horse had only been dead a few hours the smell was overwhelming. We were just barely able to bring the horse we were there to ride outside. Since that stable only had riding in its arena, my daughter simply lunged him. By the time we were done the knacker had come and gone and the smell had started to abate. I would not have wanted to be that guy or be married to him. I take that memory and multiply it by about 20 to imagine the smell of 19th century England.
Also, there is an island in the Boston Harbor called Spectacle Island. It was originally two smaller islands and they delivered all the big dig dirt out there. The two small islands had for years been the place where the city’s trash etc had been dumped. It all so had the rendering plants. People lived there. A whole community of people. Now its a state park. The waves regularly wash up interesting things on the beach. Although beach combing is not allowed it happens. Sea glass, old pottery, horse bones... etc. I just assume that people get used to the smell. For example, when we come home after being gone for a few weeks, I think our house smells bad even though the animals have not been there and we clean thoroughly before we leave.
In effect, they already do that here if you are connected to a sewer system. It’s factored in on the water bill.
Color me shocked that the Muslims would want your little boys.
Racist!
And their civilization and government died as well. Just like ours.
I read that for this reason Jewish people would cut off the right thumbs of their little boys to keep them from being taken as soldiers. (Or was it the left thumb? Anyway it was from whichever hand was used to pull the trigger.) They did it when the child was very young, so they learned to compensate well for missing thumb. It was a small price to pay, I think, but still heart breaking for the parents.
Pecunia non olet!
But Hey, all cultures are equal.
The “blood tax” actually popped up in the movie “Dracula Untold”.
I guess this is supposed to make me feel better. They’ve gotten more efficient at collecting taxes to make sure all types of revenue is covered. That’s partially what the income tax is for.
Gunpowder makers in the 1500s valued urine as the moistening agent in their gunpowder recipes.
Urine from a wine drinking Bishop was considered the best.
(From The Age of Firearms by Robert Held.)
This topic was posted , thanks MtnClimber.
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