In the American experiment,

taxes were originally a rallying cry against tyranny

“no taxation without representation” wasn’t merely a slogan, it was a declaration that the fruits of one’s labor should not be seized by a distant authority without consent.

The Boston Tea Party wasn’t about the price of tea,

it was about the principle that a free people should never be reduced to the role of involuntary funders of imperial agendas.

The Constitution encrusted this distrust

direct federal taxation was heavily limited, with the income tax seen as anathema to liberty.

But that changed in 1913 with the ratification of the 16th Amendment,

under the guise of fairness and necessity,

the federal government claimed permanent, unlimited access to private earnings.

World wars expanded that reach.

Today, the tax code has become a labyrinth designed not to raise revenue efficiently, but to manipulate behavior, reward allies, and punish dissent.

The IRS, once unthinkable in a free republic, now holds more power than the average citizen can challenge.

We have gone from rebellion over a tea tax to quiet compliance with the annual seizure of more than half our productivity.

Taxes are no longer a means to fund liberty, they are the price of forfeiting it.

What began as a tool of self-government has inverted into a tool of surveillance, coercion, and economic servitude.

The means became the end, and the citizen became the collateral.