COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong; As a Canuck, I enjoyed your piece on the window and step tax for I fear Trudeau may start reading your blog for ideas. You have to come up with a program that blocks politicians. I love how they call Trump a racist down there showing they are real idiots for they do not know the definition of race. Trump is no keener and that’s why they hate him. I thought I would share with you that here in Canada, during 1885, we did impose a racist tax. Canada created the Chinese Head Tax, which taxed the entry of Chinese immigrants. What would they call that today?
SF
ANSWER: True, Trump is no keener (ass-kisser) but at least you know what he thinks whereas the career boys just smile and lie to your face so you never know. Yes, politicians do seem to get ideas from each other. The US had this civil asset forfeiture and now everyone is confiscating money because that’s what the Americans do. Today, civil asset forfeiture is an outright crime against the people for it is not even a tax – just an illegal taking of innocent people’s money.
When it comes to money, there have been some really crazy taxes and hypocrisy behind it. I would have been discriminated against by Peter I, the Great in Russia. Back in 1705, he imposed a tax on men who did not shave. If you paid the tax, you did not have to shave. The police were authorized to shave any man on the spot. If you paid the tax, you were given a supply of tokens to give to the police so they did not shave you on the spot. I suspect there was no shaving cream applied, but the brute force with a knife. Here is one of those tokens that were issued to men who paid a tax to be allowed to wear facial hair. I suppose race did not matter, so it was just tyranny. Peter the Great was supposedly trying to modernize Russia demanding that men should be clean-shaven. Nevertheless, Peter the Great was painted wearing a mustache.
Yet Peter the Great may not have actually stolen the idea of a beard tax from King Henry VIII of England. In that case, Henry VIII was notoriously in financial trouble and he debased his coinage because he was broke. During 1535, Henry levied a tax on all men who had beards thereby inventing the beard tax. What was interesting, Henry VIII discovered that imposing a tax on beards turned them into a status symbol. Beards became reserved for the affluent and revered by the impoverished who could not pay the tax. Henry VIII’s greed made beards the symbol of resistance. Henry VIII, himself, wore a beard during his reign.
What politicians always do is the constantly create more and more schemes to invent new taxes rather than raising taxes, which is too obvious. Roosevelt imposed all sorts of taxes including the Marihuana Tax in 1937. He put a tax on silver and even potatoes.
You will find all sorts of taxes imposed on some really crazy things throughout history. So get ready. When the Democrats come back, it will be with a vengeance like nothing before. There have even been people who suggested that there should be a tax on emails because it is competing with the Post Office.
