The boy, as a Dictator

As grandpa and I were piling wood that he had spent the day splitting and quartering up in the woodshed I began talking about what he had told me to think over. And as grandpa listened patiently here is what I said.

“Grandpa, the very first thing I’d do if given the role of absolute dictator for a day is take a good look at our Constitution. I would eliminate three amendments and modify a fourth amendment. The amendments I would eliminate are the 16th, 17th, and the 26th amendments. I would modify the 22nd amendment.

The reason I’d eliminate the 16th amendment is verily simple. The Constitution declares us as a nation of people not a nation divided up into classes. That is what that amendment does, divides society up into three classes as the tax has been imposed upon the people. Tell me that the politicians don’t take advantage of this when seeking election or reelection. In fact, the two major political parties have been defined by some along this division of the people.

It no longer serves its intent and purpose of its passage. It was passed upon the promise that it would only affect the very rich. That no longer is true.

My main complaint though is that it gives the government the right to invade the privacy of the people. It is none of the government’s business of how much money we earn or even how we earn our income. The government has no more business of knowing of our economic affairs than does our nosy next door neighbor.

Another complaint I have with it is the fact that government does not treat the people in a just manner with it. Furthermore, it be cannot be declared it treats the people in a fair manner. It is discriminatory and biased in how it treats people. Because of this, taxes are higher than they need to be.

As it is set up now, a person works to take care of the needs of the government before he can take care of his own family. How can that abide by the principle that our government is a government “for the people” as Mr. Lincoln said it was?

Since when did the government have the ability to determine what the needs of the people are? As you have taught me, grandpa, we each are individuals and as individuals have different needs. Taxes should be imposed in such a manner that each individual can satisfy his needs first then satisfy the needs of government. Government should recognize that a man’s family is always the first priority in his life not his second. The income tax forces a person to put his family’s needs second to the needs of the government.

We, the people, must remember that we fought a war and declared our independence from a rule and one of the reasons for it was taxation. We, the people, must also remember the concept of "no taxation without representation." We must remind our representatives that from this concept that is why we elect them, to protect the people from being overtaxed and that doesn't allow for the concept of affordability in the determination of taxation. That is their primary role in government. That would be one reason that there is a clause in the Constitution stating that all bills of budgetary issues must originate in the House of Representatives.

We must remind our representatives that they were elected to represent all of the people that are in their district. We must remind them that they were not elected to just represent the poor. We must remind them that they were not elected just to represent the middle class. Nor were they elected to represent just the rich of their district. Most important is the fact that we need to remind them that they were not elected to place the needs of government above the needs of the people who elected them. We need to remind our government that the income tax betrays the very foundation of its founding.”

Grandpa, as he threw the last chunk on the wood pile, just smiled and said, “you have spoken well, boy, now let’s see if the people will agree with you, shall we?