As the nation unofficially leaves summer behind and takes a day to celebrate the hard work of the country this question arises. Are you not entitled to the sweat of your brow? There is a negative connotation to the word entitlement now, but we were founded as a nation that believed that if you worked to earn something you were indeed entitled to receive it. This was to be a free nation of independent people, not the arbitrary subjugation of people under a monarch. Explain then to me how the first fruits of our labor are not put into our bank accounts, why they are not voluntarily given to our churches, why they are not set aside for college funds or retirement plans. Our labor is exercised at the behest of the government at a rate that they deem appropriate. The taxes we pay are taken from our checks first and those checks stand at mercy of those that set the tax rates. At no point was this envisioned by our forefathers or enshrined into any of our founding documents. There was an idea then that the right to private property was inseparable from our unalienable rights as found in the Declaration. And it is that right that is infringed upon under our system of direct taxation. Can it really be called our property when the remainder is handed to us after the government gets done with it? Under the Sixteenth Amendment our legislature has the legal ability to tax 100% of all income. The only protection is the watchful eye of the American public. But look how easily we are swayed when those in charge only promise to take more from your neighbor as long as they leave you alone. Far too many buy into such a dangerous notion.
The bleeding of our jobs overseas should not merely be taken lightly. This punishment of success has gone on long enough to make real changes to how we as a nation think and act; because those companies are fleeing the most skilled workforce in the world right now. They are leaving for countries with fewer natural resources and less qualified workers. The people looking for jobs right now have college degrees. There are PhD’s who are desperately seeking work. This is not right. We were once a nation that exemplified the demand for quality. What happened to change that? There are some who would immediately accuse us of falling under the spell of the “almighty dollar”. That group is always willing to misplace the blame on the greed of today for the problems created by yesterday’s shortsightedness. What happens when you spend decades punishing success? You get less of it. Real greed should not be confused with ambition. Greed is not working harder to gain more. Real greed is taking money from those who have earned it and redistributing it to those who have not. Real greed is taking money from those who have worked for it and promising it to others for votes. That is the face of greed in this country, and it is not found in the corporate board rooms as we were taught. It is found behind every podium manned by a person demanding a “fair share” that has never been defined as anything other than more. It is found in every Committee room that has found it better to raise taxes than to be fiscally responsible with what it was given. It is found in every braying, bleating voice crying for other’s money to enact a personal need for economic justice. Our system of direct taxation is the manifestation of this greed that has become institutionalized in Washington. To stamp it out we must rip the tax code out. The shortsighted greed of a swarm of congressmen over decades has caused our code to grow at an exponential rate. We must return to a fair system that recognizes where wealth comes from in this country. It comes from work.
And in the meantime our people have been denied the ability to work. Watching the political class talk one might be led to think that our recovery is merely taking its time. While we may be in a recovery it has become abundantly clear that those in charge are more interested in recovering poll numbers than the jobs of those they represent. We could remedy a great deal of the damage done to our business world with one bill. The FairTax repeals this punitive tax on corporations; it also repeals the regressive payroll taxes and the atrocity that is income tax. In doing so it ensures each and every American in country and abroad that when they go to work, what they earn is theirs. It harkens back to a more classical era in which the promises a country made were kept amongst its citizenry. America used to be the place you would travel to in order to escape the arbitrary dictums of tyranny. Our tax code has worked to reverse this reality if not the belief. People assume now that this is how it will continue forever. But it does not have to be. We still have the ability to reclaim what should rightfully be ours. Our property. Under our current system we are fleeing the most skilled labor market in the world and leaving American workers in the dust. The tax code is the key driver of this insanity. We still desire excellence, but at present it seems unattainable in a country whose tax code alone amounts to 70,000+ pages of regulation. There is no mystery as to where the jobs have gone, they have been pushed out to be replaced with a complicated cypher that codifies greed and punishes success. And likewise there is no mystery as to how to bring them back in droves. Repeal the code that is responsible and replace it with one that appeals to our highest aspirations and not our meanest tendencies. Take today to relax, if there are politicians working the crowds today, ask them about the FairTax and why they want to continue on the road that has led us here. But try to celebrate today and the fact that we still live in the most productive place on the planet. Tomorrow as you wake up early and prepare for work, or as you hit the pavement looking for it, know that the jobs we work or seek are not ours. We are currently working for the government instead of the other way around. And all that they have done with our hard earned money is run a $16 trillion deficit and ask for more. Is it not time to stop plodding down this road to ruin? So let us return to the question, are you entitled to the sweat of your brow? Our answer is a resounding and impatient yes. Then it is time for the FairTax. Pass it. And let’s get back to work.
