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The country ran just fine with 0% income taxes until 1913. We were almost 150 old as a nation then. We had already become a superpower, as WW1 and WW2 would s
by IG_Semmelweiss 4y ago
The country ran just fine with 0% income taxes until 1913.
We were almost 150 old as a nation then. We had already become a superpower, as WW1 and WW2 would shortly confirm.
- culturestate 4y ago> The country ran just fine with 0% income taxes until 1913. Sure, apart from that whole Civil War fracas in the mid-1800s and the ensuing decades of reconstruction.
- brigandish 4y agoThe Civil War was a fight over the efficiency and ability of the country to run itself via taxes or not?
- culturestate 4y agoMy point is that regardless of the tax regime, America pretty clearly did not run "just fine" in that era.
- brigandish 4y agoIt seems that you could also say it didn't run fine if there were an invasion, for much the same reasons, but that wouldn't, in most cases, make it a valid critique of the way things were being run, especially with regard to the actual subject here, which regards the tax regime.
- checkyoursudo 4y agoThere were income taxes before 1913. e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1861 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1861
- somenameforme 4y agoHe means permanent. In times of urgent need, such as in times of war, the government would raise money as necessary. The federal government assessing a permanent tax on people was a huge deal and required a constitutional amendment, the 16th, passed in 1913. The act you're referencing was in response to the Civil War (which started in 1861), and would be allowed to ultimately expire about a decade later.