I expect to be dead in 100 years. However, if policies I supported while living turned out to have bad consequences, those suffering the consequences could legitimately "blame" me.
Yes, you do. There is enough human history to know that government expands as much as possible and abuses any powers given. That's why the founders didn't allow for a national sales tax or a national income tax.
I think a lot of freepers would like to see either a flat tax or national sales tax implemented with the elimination of the income tax.
Some of us want to see the 16th amendment repealed and the income tax replaced with nothing. Return to having the government doing what was given to it to do in article 1, secion 8 of the US constitution and they don't need much money at all. What they need they can get off constitutional funds sources.
“However, if 100 years from now, that were distorted into something we never intended it to be, do we take the blame? “
If you support something that supports the monstrous leviathan that is the federal government, you are very much to blame. These tax schemes are meant to maintain current levels of revenue and current level of government. The income tax was just as wrong in 1913 as it is today. Those who instituted it are much worse than those who now go along with it. The first had to take much initiative to get the job done.
Teddy Roosevelt and the so-called progressive Republicans lobbied hard for passage of the 16th and 17th amendments to the Constitution. Passing those amendments fundamentally altered the size, scope, and reach of our government. Either those men saw that change and naively believed it for the better, in which case they were short-sighted fools, or they knew the dangers and did it anyway, in which case they were little more than vain glory-seekers. In either case, TR deserves scorn, not praise, from conservatives.
And if we are so foolish as to make similar errors in judgment, then future generations have every right to judge us as harshly.