There was a teenager in the audience who asked a question at the last Republican "Tea Party" debate. I think he asked it of Huntsman: "How much of my income should I be allowed to keep?" (Or something very close to that.)
In my opinion he didn't get a straight answer from Huntman. Didn't really get an answer, period.
I wouldn't have blinked before replying: "You should be able to keep every penny that is not absolutely necessary to fund the Constitutional requirements of the Federal government and what the people ask of their more local governments. And if we were operating under the protection of rights and the free market economy envisioned by the Founders, you should be able to keep close to 90% or more of what you earn.
In my opinion, if God can get by with 10% to govern a really great world, surely government can get by with 10% to secure our rights.
We need to get back to the mentality of how much we shall allocate to government rather than how much will government allow us to have.
HERE is our founder's 'free market economy...
When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country's founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society.
A word that appears nowhere in the Constitution is "corporation," for the writers had no interest in using for-profit corporations to run their new government. In colonial times, corporations were tools of the king's oppression, chartered for the purpose of exploiting the so-called "New World" and shoveling wealth back into Europe. The rich formed joint-stock corporations to distribute the enormous risk of colonizing the Americas and gave them names like the Hudson Bay Company, the British East India Company, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Because they were so far from their sovereign - the king - the agents for these corporations had a lot of autonomy to do their work; they could pass laws, levy taxes, and even raise armies to manage and control property and commerce. They were not popular with the colonists.
Ever hear of the saying, actions speak louder than words? So HOW they actually governed is how THEY actually interpreted the documents they authored.
Our founding fathers believed in very heavy regulations and restrictions on corporations. They were men who held ethics as the most important attribute. They viewed being paid by the American people for their services as a privilege not a right. And they had no problem closing down any corporation that swindled the people, and holding owners and stockholder personally liable for any harm to the people they caused.
Eighteenth-century laws regulating corporations in America
*Corporations were required to have a clear purpose, to be fulfilled but not exceeded.
*CorporationsÂ’ licenses to do business were revocable by the state legislature if they exceeded or did not fulfill their chartered purpose(s).
*The state legislature could revoke a corporationÂ’s charter if it misbehaved.
*The act of incorporation did not relieve corporate management or stockholders/owners of responsibility or liability for corporate acts.
*As a matter of course, corporation officers, directors, or agents couldn’t break the law and avoid punishment by claiming they were “just doing their job” when committing crimes but instead could be held criminally liable for violating the law.
*Directors of the corporation were required to come from among stockholders.
*Corporations had to have their headquarters and meetings in the state where their principal place of business was located.
*Corporation charters were granted for a specific period of time, such as twenty or thirty years (instead of being granted “in perpetuity,” as is now the practice).
*Corporations were prohibited from owning stock in other corporations, to prevent them from extending their power inappropriately.
*CorporationsÂ’ real estate holdings were limited to what was necessary to carry out their specific purpose(s).
*Corporations were prohibited from making any political contributions, direct or indirect.
*Corporations were prohibited from making charitable or civic donations outside of their specific purposes.
*State legislatures could set the rates that some monopoly corporations could charge for their products or services.
*All corporation records and documents were open to the legislature or the state attorney general.
The Early Role of Corporations in America
The Legacy of the Founding Parents
Corporate Personhood-Demeaning Our Bill of Rights - Reclaim Democracy.org
Thomas Jefferson Feared an Aristocracy of Corporations
"For the general operations of manufacturer, let our workshops remain in Europe. It is better to carry provisions and materials to workmen there, than bring them to the provisions and materials, and with them their manners and principles. The loss by the transportation of commodities across the Atlantic will be made up in happiness and permanence of government. The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manner and spirit of a people which preserve a public vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.
Thomas Jefferson
