Taxation without representation

We have all heard the phrase, "taxation without representation." Taxation without representation is widely regarded as one of the reasons that the United States declared its independence from the British.


What if we could tax people who can't possibly be represented in the government? What if we could tax others who have no way to fight the taxes we are forcing on them? We have found that group. Our nation has been actively taxing future generations who haven't even been born yet.

When we fund government projects and services with debt, we are effectively embracing taxation without representation. We are forcing our future population to pay for the lifestyles of current Americans. We never think to even ask about whether those who will be responsible for paying the bills would approve of how we are spending their money.

Personally, I don't like how much modern Americans are forced to pay for the mistakes of those who came before us. Our debt is nothing new, and previous generations had the same fiscally irresponsible mindset that we have. If we don't want to continue these mistakes, we need to start looking out for those who can't possibly speak for themselves. We should only use government debt if we are confident that future generations would approve. Either that, or the debt is short-term so that we can pay it off ourselves.