Our grandchildren have grounds for rebellion
“No taxation without representation” was a rationale for revolution.
The probable source of this phrase was colonist James Otis of Massachusetts, who argued as early as 1764: “(T)hat this constitution (of England) is the most free one and by far the best now existing on earth; that by this constitution every man in the dominions is a free man; that no parts of His Majesty’s dominions can be taxed without their consent; that every part has a right to be represented in the supreme or some subordinate legislature; that the refusal of this would seem to be a contradiction in practice to the theory of the constitution …”
Another permutation is “Taxation without representation is tyranny.”
Yet this country has created a tax on a group of people who have no representation and no possible say whatsoever — the next generation, our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The national debt currently stands at $13 trillion and that doesn’t take into account the entitlements yet to come due — Social Security, Medicare, public union pensions and health care benefits that judges have determined are property rights promised by government and must be paid, though the financing of them has been adequate to cover what is due. That’s a mere $109 trillion.
Where 18 workers once paid to support a Social Security retiree, soon there will be only two.
Thomas Jefferson recognized the temptation to foist the debt of one generation onto the next. He warned in a letter to James Madison, "Then I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and encumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.”
They arrested Bernie Madoff for running a Ponzi scheme. Congress, the state legislatures, city councils and county commissions have not yet been so charged.
Perhaps, in keeping with a fine American tradition the next generations will revolt and tell us no, we will not pay for the benefits you promised yourself but failed to fully fund, "So, get back to work old man."
