Are Americans wimps and socialists?

email | Craig J. Cantoni

[hsmomx3]

Why aren't Americans storming the castle and overthrowing the overlords who have consigned them and their offspring to lives of tax servitude? Are they wimps and socialists?

They are neither. They are frogs.

You may know that if a frog is put in hot water, it will jump out. But if it is put in a pot of cold water on a stove and the heat is slowly turned up, the frog will stay put and boil to death. The same is true for taxpayers.

If government expenditures suddenly increased by 300%, taxpayers would grab their pitchforks, overthrow the House of Lords in Washington and put the heads of the tyrants on pikes on the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac. But because expenditures have grown over 104 years instead of overnight, taxpayers have sat like boiling frogs as government spending has increased threefold since 1900 as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.

Imagine the revolution that would have occurred had the government increased spending by 300% in 1900 in one fell swoop. It would have made the Boston Tea Party look like tea and crumpets at Buckingham Palace.

Americans also have sat still as transfer payments, which are a euphemism for neighbors stealing from neighbors, have ballooned like a bullfrog's throat over the last century from 2% of government spending to 40%, or 20-fold. Imagine Americans being told in 1900 that 40% of their taxes would be stolen by their neighbors and special-interest groups. The nation would have seen its second civil war.

And imagine taxpayers being told in 1914, which was the year following the ratification of the income tax amendment, the 16th Amendment, that the federal income tax per capita would be where it is today, at $2,500. That is 352% more than per-capita income taxes in 1914, in inflation-adjusted dollars. Or imagine taxpayers finding out on April 15, 1914, that they had to pay an accountant to file their taxes because there were suddenly 4,000 pages of tax forms, as is the case today.

It would have been unimaginable 100 years ago for Americans to think that federal spending would ever reach today's astonishing level of $21,671 per household.

If President William McKinley had said in his inaugural speech in 1900 that he was going to increase government expenditures by 300% and taxes by 352%, his assassination would have occurred on the spot instead of in 1901. And his assassin would have been lionized instead of vilified. There would be a statue of him in the Capitol Rotunda next to other revolutionary heroes.

There are other reasons why Americans are behaving like boiled frogs instead of people who love liberty. First, most taxes are hidden and not paid directly by taxpayers. For example, for homeowners with mortgages, property taxes are paid by the mortgage company and not directly by the homeowner. Likewise, sales taxes are tacked on bills and not paid separately. The same is true for income taxes and FICA taxes, which are withheld from paychecks and never seen by workers. And corporate taxes are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

It's not surprising that the self-employed and small-business owners tend to be fiscal conservatives. They know what they pay in income and FICA taxes, because they write quarterly checks to the government for the taxes.

It's also not surprising that per-pupil spending has skyrocketed over the last 25 years. That's because Americans have no idea what they pay in public education taxes over their lifetime. (They pay over $150,000 per household.)

The government demands accurate financial statements from corporations but doesn't practice what it preaches. Have you ever received a statement from your state, county or city government showing what you've paid in taxes from year to year and the percentage that the taxes have increased? Naturally, the government's coconspirators, the leftist media and government K-12 schools, are not about to tell the public.

Another reason why Americans are behaving like boiled frogs is that they are considerably more wealthy than 100 years ago, in spite of the growth of government. Thanks to the free market -- or I should say the 50% of the market that is still free and not socialized or regulated to death -- the average income in inflation-adjusted dollars has grown from $8,360 in 1900 to over $40,000 today. During the same period, the portion of income spent on food has dropped from 43% in 1900 to 15% today, and the number of autos has increased from 8,000 to over 132 million. Lower-income Americans have conveniences and a quality of life that only the upper-crust of society had 100 years ago.

I have been writing about taxes for years and have usually been met by yawns from readers, especially from Republican soccer moms in open-toed shoes with their webbed feet showing. Politicians only have to mention the magic words "children" and "per-pupil spending" for female frogs to agree to the stove being turned to a higher temperature. Male frogs are just as agreeable, but the magic words for them are "subsidized sports stadiums." And older frogs are even more agreeable. The magic words for them are "send the bills for our medicine to future generations."

Americans consider the French to be wimps and socialists, and the British call them frogs. Ironically, Americans are not wimps and socialists, but they are frogs. _________

Mr. Cantoni is an author, columnist and founder of Honest Americans Against Legal Theft (HAALT). He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

[Terpfen]

Boy, that's a way to get support from a target audience: insult them.

[The Green Goblin]

Are Americans wimps and socialists?

It should be obvious that far too many certainly are...

[Mr. Mojo]

They are neither. They are frogs.

Dems fightin' words!

[JustPlainJoe]

Are Americans wimps and socialists?

Our government has a party consisting of each of these two groups...

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

I like the way this guy thinks. May I point out that $150,000 over a lifetime is only enough to put one child through K-12, and that's if you do not count the cost of interest since the funds are spent long before they're paid. Which brings me to the answer to his question. Why? Because the vast majority of Americans get far more than they give. It's a real deal for most, and the deal keeps growing. Most families add tremendously to the deficit each year; that is, they pay in far less than they receive in benefits. This is never really spelled out to them, or maybe more would show a guilty conscience and stop voting to plunder "the rich" even further.

Congress has figured out that they can bribe poeple with their own money -- or better, they can bribe people with their neighbor's money. Now most American's cannot afford to face the truth. They couldn't possibly fund the so-called "necessities" the gov't bestows on them. So they ease their guilt by living in denial.

[Consort]

Overthrown overlords would be replaced with other overlords, probably worse ones, and they would take measures to prevent future overthrows.

[nosofar]

They are neither. They are frogs.

Dems fightin' words!

I thought being called a frog was a compliment for a Dem.

[MadIvan]

Americans consider the French to be wimps and socialists, and the British call them frogs. Ironically, Americans are not wimps and socialists, but they are frogs.

Speaking as an outside observer, I believe America is two nations. Hold a mirror up to one of these nations, and this is who you will see:

Hold up a mirror to the other, you will see the coastal elites, cynical, socialist, with aspirations to emulate the qualities of their compatriots in France. This elite is intellecutally stunted - note how their discourse is limited to the regurgitation of left wing dogma - and culturally bankrupt: note their dependence on Hollywood. In their enclaves, often wealthier than the rest of America, they sneer at the previous reflection, hoping to lead the other America, kicking and screaming, to be like they are.

I do not believe they will succeed.

Regards, Ivan

[ICX]

"Are Americans wimps and socialists?"

www.democraticunderground.com

[scouse]

lives of tax servitude

I agree with this statement, however if you try to change it you will be met by a group of men wearing black body armor and carrying weapons. The gubmint has a lot of these people.

[longtermmemmory]

Which explains why democrats hate small business. The more small businesses the more people who have to sign and hate those fica's. The more employees the more people just pay and never feel the water boiling.

[OldFriend]

Because half of America pays NO taxes at all. One quarter of the rest vote demonrat no matter what and the rest of us are pulling the wagon.

[LowCountryJoe]

Our government has a party consisting of each of these two groups...

Don't even kid yourself that the Democratic Party has a monopoly on wimps and socialists but the interesting thing is, that most Democrats know that that's who they are. Many, many elected Republican politicians are not even aware that they have fallen prey to the principles (or more accurately, the lack of principles) of the Public Choice Theory (post#23 of linked thread).

[weegee]

Agreed. Some socialists deny what they are or say that there is no harm in promoting communism, marxism, or socialism.

They have gotten where they are today by incrementalism. It is not "the government" that has pushed this agenda. Look at how the socialists have infiltrated government. We tried to take a look in the years following WWII and some socialists didn't like what the public saw so they shouted "McCarthyism" and silenced some of their critics.

We may have won the Cold War against Soviet domination but we lost the parallel war against global socialism. I hope we don't make the same mistake with Islamofascism. We didn't with German Nazism or Japanese Imperialism.

[Hollywoodghost]

Just wait until we enter into a economic downturn. Things are Ok because most things are working. People can pay their bills. BUT--What happens if we have a downturn--a depression. People losing their jobs, their homes, there hope. What happens when only Spanish speaking people have jobs? What happens when 1/4 of the people are out of work? What happens when no one can buy a home or even shop at WalMart? It happened before--it can happen again. How will things go when the taxes cann't be collected? Social Change will be the order of the day and I believe it will be the socialists who will win the day with talk of Jobs in Nationalized companies, Free Medical care, free housing, free baby sitting, a new worker's paradise. And those who object will be sent to the re-learning camps. It is a sad road that FDR set us upon and one that can only lead to a USA version of the USSR. My dad always said that the time will come when Americans will flee to Russia for freedom. Lets do all we can to put that day off as long as possible.

[Eagle of Liberty]

Enact Fair Tax!

[RightWhale]

I have been writing about taxes for years and have usually been met by yawns

Yeah. Why is that? Metaphors too fresh?

[boris]

"For example, for homeowners with mortgages, property taxes are paid by the mortgage company and not directly by the homeowner."

This is simply untrue. I pay my property taxes every year, in November, by check.

--Boris

[LowCountryJoe]

...hoping to lead the other America, kicking and screaming, to be like they are.

Minus their money and developed self-importance, of course.

Of the the ones who feel that they are the intellectuals or the elite of our society, I often wonder just how many would have a seat at the "table of influence" if their movement toward American socialism/communism came to full fruition. Do you imagine that those "tools" who weren't invited would finally come to the understandings regarding the error of their thinking? Or are these people really that damn committed to egalitarianism? I'm not really sure about this.