If you love federal income tax so much, why was it not created until 1913 after all the Founding Fathers died?

Question

The US Constitution was ratified on June 21st, 1788. It did not allow for a federal income tax. There could only be excise taxes and apportioned taxes. Subsequent US Supreme Court cases affirmed that a federal income tax was UnConstitutional. So to destroy everything the founding fathers stood for, the federal government had to create the 16th Amendment to the Constitution which took affect in 1913 and directly contradicted the original Constitution.

What do you think about this?

And seeing as how we did just fine without a federal income tax for over 100 years, why do we need it now and what are we really getting out of it considering there are hundreds of other taxes which actually pay for government "services" ?

Answer 1

Actually the first tax of this nature appeared during the civil war to help fund the war effort.

Answer 2

The 'founding fathers' included some very brilliant and insightful men. You contradict yourself, since the provision for amendments was clearly a realization by the 'fathers' that the original constitution would need to be changed from time to time. Amending is by no means an easy task. After a majority vote in Congress, a whopping 75% of the state legislatures (currently 38 states) must ratify the amendment.

No one has mentioned the first ten amendments - 'The Bill of Rights'. In many ways they are more fundamental to most of us than the original constitution. The 14th amendment with it's 'due process' clause protects all of us, whatever our views.

In summation - an amendment, by definiton, does not contradict - it changes. Unlike other nations, we will never have need for a new constitution.

Answer 3

We did FINE without the income tax? Have you taken any history courses!?

Before 1913 we had a brutal Civil War that killed and maimed 100s of thousands. Then we had the Industrial Revolution in which people worked 80 hour weeks, children included, and had a life expectancy of about age 44.

Prior to 1913 we had no highways to speak of because cars weren't invented. We didn't need a huge and strong military because we were pretty much protected by geography. We didn't need a great educational system because we didn't have to compete with the citizens of the WORLD for jobs.

If you want to eliminate tax you'd better have a plan for how to take care of all our modern needs. If not, then we will collapse and China will take over the world.

But maybe that's what you really want?

Answer 4

[The Sixteenth Amendment (Amendment XVI) to the United States Constitution allows the Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results. This amendment overruled Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895), which limited the Congress's authority to levy an income tax.] [The reasoning was that taxes on the rents from land, the dividends from stocks and so on burdened the property generating the income in the same way that a tax on "property by reason of its ownership" burdened that property.] [When, therefore, this court adjudges, as it does now adjudge, that Congress cannot impose a duty or tax upon personal property, or upon income arising either from rents of real estate or from personal property, including invested personal property, bonds, stocks, and investments of all kinds, except by apportioning the sum to be so raised among the States according to population, it practically decides that, without an amendment of the Constitution — two-thirds of both Houses of Congress and three-fourths of the States concurring — such property and incomes can never be made to contribute to the support of the national government] In other words...Congress always had the power to tax wages, but could not tax rich people who made their money from rent, stock, or other investments considered property. That is what the Sixteenth amendment did. Make it possible to tax income without the burden being on the worker while the wealthy were exempt.

Answer 5

NEWSFLASH!!! It's not 1913 anymore...and it's not even the 1860s when the first federal income tax was actually enabled.

Things change...deal with it.

Moreover I would argue that back thing things "weren't just fine" Majority of the public could not read or write and we didn't need a huge department of defense because we didn't live in a global society.

Answer 6

The Federal Reserve Bank was created the same year.
The bankers figured out that they could make a lot of money by selling bonds, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government, but they needed the tax payer to be the one to back all those loans, so they created income tax.

Most people have no idea how the government got to be the way it is and how we were sold a bill of goods by our leaders who were acting solely in their own interests.

Answer 7

I think that is exactly why The Founders included a means for changing and updating The Constitution to meet changing circumstances. Because they intended for us to do exactly that, to change The Constitution if needed.

If your argument is about whether or not federal income tax is or is not a good thing, then why clutter it up with a tangental argument about whether ammending The Constitution is or is not a good thing? These are two seperate issues.

Answer 8

yep. the founders did provide for a way to amend the constitution, even if subsequent amendments contradicted the original document.

this is both a good and a bad thing; bad because it has allowed the government to increase taxation beyond even that which the colonies suffered from under England, prohibition, etc.

good because it has allowed women and black people the right to vote and be treated as citizens via constitutional amendments, etc.

Answer 9

The Founding Fathers never imagined we would grow to be such a big country. I am sure if they were still in charge in the 1900's, they too would have had to come up with a plan to get more money for the Federal Gov't. It may not be the best plan, but it has become a necessary one.

Answer 10

No American citizen in their right mind likes the income tax - but career politicians LOVE it - because they can buy votes with it. Aside from the easy aspect of wealth envy, they can also load their districts with pork - which is nothing more than using one person's income to benefit someone else.