Taxation Without Representation, Part 1

When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 civilization reached the New World and a new legacy of independence and prosperity was born. The road ahead would be long and difficult for certain, but the fortitude and faith of the new arrivals would prove to be sufficient to meet the new challenges. Fleeing from religious persecution these Pilgrims would take huge risks for and with their families to provide a future that wouldn't have been available to them in the Old World. From the Pilgrims in 1620 to the Chinese and Irish in the 1800's people all over the world took an inventory of their circumstances and sailed toward the promise that the new world offered. I believe that because we are the descendants of these risk takers Americans tend to work longer hours, are more productive and generally are more prosperous than the rest of the world. Many of us to this day still refer to the "Puritan work ethic" and all that it encompasses. This is the legacy that our ancestors left us, but what legacy are we leaving for our children and grandchildren?

Taxation without representation is a concept that came into our collective consciousness and vernacular when talk in the colonies was fomenting revolution and this can be credited as one of the primary catalysts for the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party was an extension of this thinking and a response to the Stamp Act which required American colonists to pay a tax on most printed materials. Americans traditionally have had an aversion to taxes and throughout our history and have resisted large public debt. While we have incurred debt in the past, long-term large debts and deficits have largely been a late 20th century and early 21st century phenomenon. So here we are at a precipice and as sentient thinking humans we have the ability to choose whether or not we continue down this path. I think the questions we must ask ourselves and each other are:

Is it moral to leave huge debts to generations not yet born?
Is it or can it be justified?
Do we have the right?
Is this taxation without representation?
Should it be legal?

While the concept of "Taxation Without Representation" is generally accepted as a good rule of thumb for government to abide by and it is widely believed to be a constitutional protection, it actually has no grounding in the constitution. This may be so because our constitutional framers were not in complete harmony on this issue.

Thomas Jefferson had this to say about passing debt onto posterity:

"We believe--or we act as if we believed--that although an individual father cannot alienate the labor of his son, the aggregate body of fathers may alienate the labor of all their sons, of their posterity, in the aggregate, and oblige them to pay for all the enterprises, just or unjust, profitable or ruinous, into which our vices, our passions or our personal interests may lead us. But I trust that this proposition needs only to be looked at by an American to be seen in its true point of view, and that we shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves; and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life of the majority." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813. ME 13:357

(Jefferson quote pulled from http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1340.htm)

Alexander Hamilton had this to say:

“A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. It will be a powerful cement to our nation. It will also create a necessity for keeping up taxation to a degree which, without being oppressive, will be a spur to industry.”

(Hamilton quote pulled from www.thinkexist.com)

So where do you stand? Do you believe that debt should not be passed onto future generations without exception? Do you believe that its a poor practice, but should be allowed in certain circumstances? Maybe you believe that the country benefits from debt? Whatever your opinion please share respectfully and cite you specific reasoning. Feel free to pull from any source that you deem appropriate. Let the dialectic begin!

Part 2 will focus on central banking and how it perpetrates an invisible tax on the poor and middle class.