And yet trade tariffs, so to speak, were part of the primary reason why the real founders (the spilled blood and spent treasure guys) REBELLED!
Why should I pay washington for the "privilege" to trade with you, are you incompetent at dealing with others and require regulation of your actions? Are you implying I might be? Then why do you believe in requiring me to pay for all this, when in the end, it feeds an army of unnecessary bodies and creates no safety, just expense.
A cargo of flour to the mill, going through one or two states (which is okay as far as trading goes) ends up paying SO many tariffs, permits, operating authorities, license fees and other extortions which the "law abiding" call "the fair share" that by the end, from a 50 cent bag of flour (in today's economy) you'll be lucky if the buyer gets it at 1.99 a bag... factor in profits, and inflation and you still wonder why you're getting wiped out by food and commodity costs?
I understand paying a port owner his due, because I'm putting use on the docks HE paid to build and maintain, but that's a private issue between ME as the captain of my ship and the port owner as the owner of that very real set of docks and warehouses, and the employer of those very real dock employees. I don't see where the government keeps me safe. In a free nation (think Free Luna before it develops government) there would be no "revenue guard" to board ships in harbor and demand tribute, while also condemning nongovernment piracy as "bad" or "evil."
But you may feel free to justify piracy under color of law any way you want.
Going back to truckers... you've got the IFTA (international fuel tax agreement) sticker, which requires the owner of the truck to keep track of odometer ratings and fuel consumption so he can pay taxes to the government and receive a sticker... not having the sticker results in cops doing to the "evil" trucker what cops do best. But wait!!! You already pay fuel taxes at the pump!!!! So, technically, the way I understand it your fuel is taxed TWICE! (And then you get the ignorant / useful idiot government apologists who scream "without income taxes how would we pay for roads?!")
But wait till you see what happens to any poor bastard caught on a highway at the "fuel check" inspections. See, for those of you who don't farm or drive diesels, you aren't aware that the bastards put red die in "tax free / farm" diesel. That stuff's significantly cheaper than the "road" diesel, usually left murky and being either green, gray or brown in color. If people actually paid attention and did the math, they'd realize that the government extracts insane, nearly incalculable amounts of wealth out of every day of your life. Via both taxes on you, and everything and everyone you interact with, there is nothing you touch that hasn't been taxed, retaxed, supertaxed, and fleeced some more by those government thugs that are so necessary for our "safety." At least according to the braindamaged apologists.
I believe all those interstate operators permits that each state extracts, and the feds extract some more are yet another form of "trade tariffs." So while you as a cop can justify it, Shawn, think about the fact that everything you buy, had you had an honest productive job, would be MUCH cheaper. And if people were still self policing as was the case before the invention of the criminal enterprise known as professional police, instead of people looking around like scared rabbits and slamming their brakes at the sight of a speed trap cruiser or ticketlight, we'd have almost no accidents caused by such ridiculous fearful action, justifiable though it might be. People seek the freedom of speeding on the road and people seek freedom, but know that bullies will demand their wealth, and have been mentally neutered to respect your uniform, rather than see those of your profession for the highwaymen and JBT's they actually are.
That's my view, and while I'll be nice to you while you extract my time and wealth from me at gun point, the day you do, you stop being human, in my eyes, that standing invitation for a brewski when we meet gets silently cancelled, and you add another straw to the camel's back. And we're not far off from when the guillotines roll out and justice is meted out by the throng... as Jeff Snyder so snidely put it, and I so snidely paraphrase it, "french revolution style."
Also if you start saying that "free trade brought ruin to our economy" ask yourself... "free trade?" Free trade would've implied a 1 page law, stating as follows... "no trade imposits or tariffs will be placed upon any private vessel or its crew, when entering a non government or privately owned port that has signed onto this free trade agreement, such port being a non government port and purpose of vessel being for any purpose, be it commerce or recreation, or other non government purposes not explicitly listed in this document.
Take note: vessels setting out from a port abiding by this agreement will be advised to be careful of docking at foreign ports that aren't signatory to this 1 page, very clear and simple agreement, and to negotiate fees and rates with the owners of the port prior to docking.."
Somehow, NAFTA/CAFTA/etcFTA's have all been a lot lengthier in their setup, and nowhere nearly clear... so let US be clear, trade controls by governments are precisely why we are where we are, why we're all looking to leave where we live now, to go to a freer area and to try, for a change, to at least keep that area INHOSPITABLE to fools, so that they might, for a change, stop following us once we tame the place. We're in this predicament because, free trade agreement or no free trade agreement, there hasn't been actual FREE (unregulated, untaxed, uncontrolled) trading in known history... the little that was, was the buccaneers of Tortuga and the privateers of the past (not the government licensed pirates who helped empires dominate the sea, mind you, but they're lost to history and mostly villified by every history book sold to us as truth by the very establishment whose existence, such lies guarantee.
