"Taxman," the only song written by George Harrison to open one of the Beatles' albums (it featured on the band's 1966 Revolver album), is a snarling, biting, angry commentary on government greed and how little control "we the taxpayers" have over our lives and our money.
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman.
When the Beatles finally started earning enough money from their music to place them in the top tax bracket, they found the British government only-too-eager to levy a supertax on them of more than 90%.
Here in America, things aren't much better.
More than two centuries after our ancestors went to war over their abused property rights, we're once again being subjected to taxation without any real representation, all the while the government continues to do whatever it likes--levy taxes, rack up debt, spend outrageously and irresponsibly--with little concern for the plight of its citizens.
Because the government's voracious appetite for money, power and domination has grown out of control, its agents have devised other means of funding its excesses and adding to its largesse through taxes disguised as fines, taxes disguised as fees, and taxes disguised as tolls, speeding tickets and penalties. And then you have all of those high-handed, outrageously manipulative government programs sold to the public as a means of forcing compliance and discouraging unhealthy behavior by way of taxes, fines, fees and programs for the "better" good.
Surveillance cameras, government agents listening in on your phone calls, reading your emails and text messages and monitoring your spending, mandatory health care, sugary soda bans, anti-bullying laws, zero-tolerance policies, political correctness: these are all outward signs of a government--i.e., a societal elite--that believes it knows what is best for you and can do a better job of managing your life than you can.
This is tyranny disguised as "the better good."
Indeed, this is the tyranny of the Nanny State: marketed as benevolence, enforced with armed police, and inflicted on all those who do not belong to the elite ruling class that gets to call the shots.
So-called "sin taxes" have become a particularly popular technique used by the Nanny State to supposedly discourage the populace from engaging in activities that don't align with the government's priorities (consuming sugary drinks, smoking, drinking, etc.).
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