Today marks the 247th anniversary since the British government passed the Stamp Act, a direct tax levied on all materials printed for commercial or legal use in the colonies. The tax faced a backlash from the colonies and was decried as taxation without representation. Despite how it turned out for the British, many organizations today seem to want to emulate their example.
The UN has been pushing global taxes in one form or another for years now. They’ve wanted global carbon taxes to pay for “damages” from “climate change.” They tried and failed to impose, along with the World Health Organization, a host of taxes on everything from internet activity to airlines for use in the organization’s efforts to fundamentally reorganization the research, development and global distribution of pharmaceuticals. Lately they’ve been beating the drums for a financial transactions tax, predicated on the lie that financial institutions alone, and not bad government policy and overspending, are primarily responsible for the world economic situation. Even billionaire Bill Gates has called for a host of global taxes to fund “development” for poor nations.
Now, the WHO is calling for not only increased excise taxes on tobacco, but also that they be given a few cents off the top of each sale. Expecting to raise between $5.5 and $16 billion, the tax would provide a massive slush fund for use by unelected bureaucrats in pursuit of a socialized health care model.
Today’s Stamp Act anniversary ought to remind international organizations that legitimate governance requires clear and direct grants of authority. Bureaucrats that have been elected by no one, on the other hand, have no business seeking to tax anyone. If they need the money so bad, perhaps they should consider starting a business that adds value to the economy, in which case they won’t need to seek involuntary and immoral impositions on the people of the world.
