What could have been

As Doug Newman put it, "I write this on July 4, when we celebrate the ouster of a 'tyrant' who taxed his subjects at the rate of about three percent."

Today, Gary North wrote, "When Jefferson wrote [the declaration of independence], the British were extracting approximately 1% of national income from the American colonies. For the southern colonies, it may have been 2.5%. If we could somehow get back to the tyranny of Great Britain in 1776, I would be willing to celebrate the Fourth of July with greater enthusiasm. But that would take a revolution."