In 1966, George Harrison of the Beatles wrote a song that seemed, well, a little absurd to most of us.
It was called "Tax Man."
The Beatles had recently been propelled into the nouveau riche stratosphere by their global success – still unprecedented to this day in pop music.
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But they were evidently surprised at how much of their wealth was seized by government.
So they wrote an angry protest song unlike most of the protest songs of that era.
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It wasn't about war.
It wasn't about civil rights.
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It wasn't about nuclear proliferation.
Instead, it was about the mean old government confiscating people's wealth.
Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I'm the taxman,
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Should 5 per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman.
Today, more of us can relate – maybe, in fact, about 50 percent of Americans, those who pay taxes so that the other 50 percent don't have to pay them.
However, that's not the point of my story.
I recently heard this song, again, in a whole new light.
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I heard something I never noticed before after listening to this song a thousand times.
If you drive a car, car, I'll tax the street;
If you try to sit, 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.
Obviously, the Beatles were using hyperbole to make a point – illustrating absurdity by being absurd, as Rush Limbaugh would put it.
Tax the street?
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Well not so absurd, after all. In fact, government has always used tolls to tax streets. Today governments are literally selling off public roadways built with taxpayer dollars to private companies to maintain them with expanded use of tolls.
Tax your seat?
The county where I live has a property tax on office equipment used in the home. So, literally, government officials want to tax the seat I use to conduct business.
But check out the next line.
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Who could have imagined in 1966 that government would actually figure out ways to "tax the heat"? How preposterous must that have sounded 44 years ago? Pretty preposterous, as I recall. In fact, that's why I never before connected this lyric with what we're actually experiencing today.
Isn't that what the phony carbon tax schemes are all about?
My point?
Forty-four years ago, who could have imagined that George Harrison's "Tax Man" nightmare would literally become a reality?
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That's all the global-warming/climate-change fraud is about – a scheme to tax the heat!
First, they whip up hysteria about a phony problem called "global warming." After all, weather changes are as predictable as sunrises. The world will never run out of weather variations. And, thus, government will never run out of crises to exploit to bilk taxpayers.
It doesn't matter whether it's the United Kingdom, which is the government Harrison was squawking about in 1966, or the United States of America in 2010.
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It's the nature of government to bleed its citizenry dry in its unchecked quest for more and more power over the lives of individuals.
Who would have imagined in 1966 we'd actually be taxing the heat?
Who could have imagined it?
How long will it be before government figures out a way to tax our feet?
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I had never previously thought of the late George Harrison and the Beatles as political prophets, but there you are.