Scrantaxton, formerly known as Scranton, was once a free, capitalist dream that has now become a bureaucratic cesspool, a tax-and-spend nightmare created for taxpayers who have been dragged over hot coals for more than two decades’ worth of political pillaging of the city and its residents. It’s been a city crying for leadership for 23 years, but simply gets sniveling children who blame other administrations, while repeating the same mistakes.
With everyone excited to receive their tax refunds, myself included, I can’t help but think of the H&R Block’s “Get Your Billion Back” campaign. Undoubtedly there are plenty of people who are indignant at the thought of missing out on their share of that money, but all I could think was, Is it so bad that the government was able to use that money?
Prior to the Revolutionary War, the Colonial Government was far less centralized than it became after the war, and had a limited need for revenue. Contrarily, each of the individual colonies had greater responsibilities, and thus greater (yet differing) revenue needs. The Southern Colonies primarily taxed imports and exports. Central Colonies occasionally imposed a property tax and levied a “head” (or poll) tax on each adult male, while the New England Colonies raised revenue through real estate, excises and occupation taxes.