Roman vs. American Taxation
According to the Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma that I am listening to on audio CD, the Romans paid taxes that were equivalent to two days of work each year. In 6 AD a group of delegates from Judea petitioned Augustus to annex Judea to the Roman province of Syria. When this was done the Jews then came under a similar tax code that required they pay two days of earnings each year as taxation.
I compare this to the United States in 2008 and our Tax Freedom Day on April 23 (Still 22 days away!). This is the day that Americans will have made enough money to pay all their taxes including federal, state and local. This amounts to 114 days (82 days of labor plus weekends) to satisfy our tax requirements. (The good news is this is three days less than 2007.)
I find it hard to believe that the Romans could run an empire on 2 days of taxation and we are getting ready to hit the $10 trillion debt mark as a nation while we are taking 31% of our citizen’s earnings each year. I am still checking these numbers and verifying this comparison. I don’t want to believe that mathematically and financially it was better to be annexed to the Roman Empire than to be a free American. Some one say it ain’t so!
Increasing in Him,
Galyn Wiemers
Topics: General |
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:37 am
Unbelieveable!