According to the original paperwork establishing franchising rights, it makes sense why people today think that only white men were allowed to vote. Originally, a person earned the right to vote because he owned property. As very few women held title to property, it being in the name of their husbands, and as very few slaves if any held property, it being in the name of their masters, the majority, if not exclusivity, of voters were white men. However, not all white men were allowed under this law to vote.
When my parents were young someone decided to allow young people the right to vote on the auspices that a man who can be called upon to give his life for his country ought to vote. The disenfranchisement of young people however never kept valiant young men from enlisting to serve their country. Hordes of young men below the present-day age of enfranchisement enlisted in the Union Army. Many young men lied about their age in World War II so they could join and defend their country. None of those men demanded the right to dictate the turn of the nation as a right commensurate with their being asked to defend it.
I heard a quote in high school that our football team used to motivate the players. If you don’t have much vested in success, then losing doesn’t cost very much. A few weeks ago, I saw an episode of King of the Hill where Hank wins a chance to throw a football into a target and earn $1 million. He trades the throw to the so-called “sure bet”, some retired pro quarterback, who misses the throw. The QB shrugs it off as bad luck; he had nothing ventured into the attempt and nothing to gain.
Many young people misuse their franchise because they have nothing vested in the future of the nation. When you look at the sum total of taxes exacted of the people by their several governments, the large majority of funds from average people come from property. Of the total tax I paid on my first house, fully two-thirds went to pay school bond debt, and I remain without posterity to this day, and unlike income tax, there exist no exemptions for the layman to reduce his property tax bill. In fact, many people in our current credit crisis find that although their homes depreciated their tax easements remain the same.
At the age of 12, I began owning a part of America’s future when I inherited $2000 and invested it in the Berger 101 Mutual Fund. Perhaps that’s why I so vehemently oppose taxes, for in the first year I filed income tax, although none had been withheld from my pay because I didn’t earn enough to meet the withholding threshold, when I filed taxes, I had to send the IRS a check for capital gains tax on the money my investments made. At 16 years old, I had to pay the government money.
Very few teenagers own stock, and none of which I’m aware own property, but I did read recently about a teenager who made $1 million selling myspace layouts. I’ll bet she fully understands the impact of tax on income, since she has few likely exemptions and felt the full wrath of 31% of her earnings gobbled up by the government. Most teenagers and young adults want, nay demand, government assistance and swoon at the feet of evangelistic politicians preaching the life of ignoble ease. They sign up to causes of doubtless value, but they don’t end up paying for them because they down own any part of the future.
Perhaps that’s why some say that if you’re under 25 and not a liberal you have no heart and if you’re over 25 and not a conservative you have no brain. Eventually, they get jobs, grow up, own responsibility and resent the sound of money being sucked from their wallets to care for someone else who is capable of supporting themselves but elects against it. Where income tax burdens can be reduced by dependents in young families, student loans, and the like, any of them who afford their own home face the awful brutality of the Assayers Office.
Even without a myriad of deductions, income tax for most young people is largely mitigated by their depressed earning power. Both of my youngest and unmarried siblings received their entire FICA withholding less medicaire as a refund. Even I at 29 years old having set my exemptions on income tax to 3 only ended up paying $1000 to the federal government in income tax last year, and I just took the standard deduction. My parents’ effective tax rate after they itemized was lower than mine.
My father and I talk about how to leverage our spending and investments so as to mitigate as far as possible our Federal Income Tax Liability. We discussed moving to Wyoming to avoid state income tax, enjoy some of the lowest fuel and sales tax rates, and buy land in parts of the state with low property tax liability. If you own a home, you can leverage your interest against your federal tax and end up paying hardly anything at all.
A man who pays as little tax as possible who does so legally holds full power over his government. As governments increase in power, influence, and pork, any policy they enact against men with no tax liability affects them less. Yet, men with no investment in the country continue to drive up federal spending, which inevitably leads to higher government taxes, increasing tyranny upon the people.
I believe the Founding Fathers were wise to devise their original system of franchise. Said one among them, “That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.” I would gladly surrender my franchise if others who have no vested interest in the success of the nation would be forced to do in kind. However, under the principles as I understand them, notwithstanding not being a landowner, I do hold almost $11000 in investments, making me de-facto an owner of the country at large, and vested in its success. My mother has an IRA, and my kid sister has a mutual fund, but I have scores of friends and associates who rent where they live and put nothing aside. The economical woes and government throws of today matter little to them. They aren’t suffering from government policy like we are. The young millionaire I mentioned earlier doubtless also owns some sort of securities.
Voting should be granted, not simply on age or gender or race, but to all those who understand their investment in America’s future success. Not everyone who votes understands the ramifications of their choices. For my own part, when I go to the polls, except for the top of the ticket, they do not identify candidates by party, and at the bottom they fill the ballot with a myriad of state, county, and municipal issues. Most people go to the polls and make decisions based on that which they heard someone else tell them in lieu of investigating the matter for themselves, and usually the last minute surprises are levied by Democrats against Republicans, despite rules against that practice. Nevada describes, to their credit, on the sample ballot both the pros and cons of every measure, but both of those are persuasive arguments, not dispassionate analyses of the facts.
I fought vehemently several years ago against the Washoe County Animal Shelter. It proposed a miniscule hike in property taxes to pay for the construction and maintenance of the facility- in perpetuity. As a homeowner but also as a pet owner, I felt irate at the prospect, even for $0.25 per year when there are already institutions or private foundations (there are at least two private groups in Washoe county that do this) who can do it better. Now, in Clark County, they want to raise the sales tax (again in perpetuity) to pay for extra policeman notwithstanding the fact that they have 500 vacancies they have not been able to permanently staff. I never vote for a tax hike.
People need to be better taught how to vote. In order to vote, every citizen should during their junior year of high school take an American Government class designed to prepare them to take the oath of citizenship and pass that test before being granted that sacred right. The one I took focused on the national process, and while illustrative did nothing to illuminate my mind on the particulars of political franchise. Now as before, I am educated of my own initiative, by seeking out opinions and information prior to arriving at decisions.
We ask nationalized citizens to swear the oath, but we allow our offspring to skirt that rite of passage and rob them of understanding thereof. A citizen’s responsibility toward government is finite but powerful, and anyone who wants to vote, regardless of the land of his nativity, ought be required to swear that oath as condition of citizen status. Once you’re old enough to take the oath at 18, you can vote if and only if you own property, not based on age alone. If you own property, you should be able to vote if and only if you take and pass all qualifications required to gain full citizenship. Young people automatically gain the privilege of franchise and regard it with low esteem and as such don’t care about it well. I have never taken better care of contact lenses as when my parents forced me to pay the $40 for them myself.
As a Wal-Mart stockholder, last year I received notification by mail regarding the shareholder’s meeting (to which I was invited) as well as a ballot by which to voice my opinions on various aspects of company policy. For all the vehement opposition to Wal-Mart’s policies, it’s apparently that simple: you could buy 32 shares like I have and then vote in their policies, yet people just moan and pitch a fit to people who cannot do anything and do nothing of substance that can affect the outcomes with which they disagree. Americans won’t buy into anything; they want others to buy into them. It’s time that American’s take ownership in their country and understand what a privilege it is to live here.
When my parents were young someone decided to allow young people the right to vote on the auspices that a man who can be called upon to give his life for his country ought to vote. The disenfranchisement of young people however never kept valiant young men from enlisting to serve their country. Hordes of young men below the present-day age of enfranchisement enlisted in the Union Army. Many young men lied about their age in World War II so they could join and defend their country. None of those men demanded the right to dictate the turn of the nation as a right commensurate with their being asked to defend it.
I heard a quote in high school that our football team used to motivate the players. If you don’t have much vested in success, then losing doesn’t cost very much. A few weeks ago, I saw an episode of King of the Hill where Hank wins a chance to throw a football into a target and earn $1 million. He trades the throw to the so-called “sure bet”, some retired pro quarterback, who misses the throw. The QB shrugs it off as bad luck; he had nothing ventured into the attempt and nothing to gain.
Many young people misuse their franchise because they have nothing vested in the future of the nation. When you look at the sum total of taxes exacted of the people by their several governments, the large majority of funds from average people come from property. Of the total tax I paid on my first house, fully two-thirds went to pay school bond debt, and I remain without posterity to this day, and unlike income tax, there exist no exemptions for the layman to reduce his property tax bill. In fact, many people in our current credit crisis find that although their homes depreciated their tax easements remain the same.
At the age of 12, I began owning a part of America’s future when I inherited $2000 and invested it in the Berger 101 Mutual Fund. Perhaps that’s why I so vehemently oppose taxes, for in the first year I filed income tax, although none had been withheld from my pay because I didn’t earn enough to meet the withholding threshold, when I filed taxes, I had to send the IRS a check for capital gains tax on the money my investments made. At 16 years old, I had to pay the government money.
Very few teenagers own stock, and none of which I’m aware own property, but I did read recently about a teenager who made $1 million selling myspace layouts. I’ll bet she fully understands the impact of tax on income, since she has few likely exemptions and felt the full wrath of 31% of her earnings gobbled up by the government. Most teenagers and young adults want, nay demand, government assistance and swoon at the feet of evangelistic politicians preaching the life of ignoble ease. They sign up to causes of doubtless value, but they don’t end up paying for them because they down own any part of the future.
Perhaps that’s why some say that if you’re under 25 and not a liberal you have no heart and if you’re over 25 and not a conservative you have no brain. Eventually, they get jobs, grow up, own responsibility and resent the sound of money being sucked from their wallets to care for someone else who is capable of supporting themselves but elects against it. Where income tax burdens can be reduced by dependents in young families, student loans, and the like, any of them who afford their own home face the awful brutality of the Assayers Office.
Even without a myriad of deductions, income tax for most young people is largely mitigated by their depressed earning power. Both of my youngest and unmarried siblings received their entire FICA withholding less medicaire as a refund. Even I at 29 years old having set my exemptions on income tax to 3 only ended up paying $1000 to the federal government in income tax last year, and I just took the standard deduction. My parents’ effective tax rate after they itemized was lower than mine.
My father and I talk about how to leverage our spending and investments so as to mitigate as far as possible our Federal Income Tax Liability. We discussed moving to Wyoming to avoid state income tax, enjoy some of the lowest fuel and sales tax rates, and buy land in parts of the state with low property tax liability. If you own a home, you can leverage your interest against your federal tax and end up paying hardly anything at all.
A man who pays as little tax as possible who does so legally holds full power over his government. As governments increase in power, influence, and pork, any policy they enact against men with no tax liability affects them less. Yet, men with no investment in the country continue to drive up federal spending, which inevitably leads to higher government taxes, increasing tyranny upon the people.
I believe the Founding Fathers were wise to devise their original system of franchise. Said one among them, “That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.” I would gladly surrender my franchise if others who have no vested interest in the success of the nation would be forced to do in kind. However, under the principles as I understand them, notwithstanding not being a landowner, I do hold almost $11000 in investments, making me de-facto an owner of the country at large, and vested in its success. My mother has an IRA, and my kid sister has a mutual fund, but I have scores of friends and associates who rent where they live and put nothing aside. The economical woes and government throws of today matter little to them. They aren’t suffering from government policy like we are. The young millionaire I mentioned earlier doubtless also owns some sort of securities.
Voting should be granted, not simply on age or gender or race, but to all those who understand their investment in America’s future success. Not everyone who votes understands the ramifications of their choices. For my own part, when I go to the polls, except for the top of the ticket, they do not identify candidates by party, and at the bottom they fill the ballot with a myriad of state, county, and municipal issues. Most people go to the polls and make decisions based on that which they heard someone else tell them in lieu of investigating the matter for themselves, and usually the last minute surprises are levied by Democrats against Republicans, despite rules against that practice. Nevada describes, to their credit, on the sample ballot both the pros and cons of every measure, but both of those are persuasive arguments, not dispassionate analyses of the facts.
I fought vehemently several years ago against the Washoe County Animal Shelter. It proposed a miniscule hike in property taxes to pay for the construction and maintenance of the facility- in perpetuity. As a homeowner but also as a pet owner, I felt irate at the prospect, even for $0.25 per year when there are already institutions or private foundations (there are at least two private groups in Washoe county that do this) who can do it better. Now, in Clark County, they want to raise the sales tax (again in perpetuity) to pay for extra policeman notwithstanding the fact that they have 500 vacancies they have not been able to permanently staff. I never vote for a tax hike.
People need to be better taught how to vote. In order to vote, every citizen should during their junior year of high school take an American Government class designed to prepare them to take the oath of citizenship and pass that test before being granted that sacred right. The one I took focused on the national process, and while illustrative did nothing to illuminate my mind on the particulars of political franchise. Now as before, I am educated of my own initiative, by seeking out opinions and information prior to arriving at decisions.
We ask nationalized citizens to swear the oath, but we allow our offspring to skirt that rite of passage and rob them of understanding thereof. A citizen’s responsibility toward government is finite but powerful, and anyone who wants to vote, regardless of the land of his nativity, ought be required to swear that oath as condition of citizen status. Once you’re old enough to take the oath at 18, you can vote if and only if you own property, not based on age alone. If you own property, you should be able to vote if and only if you take and pass all qualifications required to gain full citizenship. Young people automatically gain the privilege of franchise and regard it with low esteem and as such don’t care about it well. I have never taken better care of contact lenses as when my parents forced me to pay the $40 for them myself.
As a Wal-Mart stockholder, last year I received notification by mail regarding the shareholder’s meeting (to which I was invited) as well as a ballot by which to voice my opinions on various aspects of company policy. For all the vehement opposition to Wal-Mart’s policies, it’s apparently that simple: you could buy 32 shares like I have and then vote in their policies, yet people just moan and pitch a fit to people who cannot do anything and do nothing of substance that can affect the outcomes with which they disagree. Americans won’t buy into anything; they want others to buy into them. It’s time that American’s take ownership in their country and understand what a privilege it is to live here.
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