Taxation Without Representation?

For this thread, i will pose just a simple question.
In school, we are taught all about the American Revolutionary War and winning our independence from the British Crown. We are all mostly taught that, one of the MAIN reasons we went to war with the Crown and sought our independence, was because of Taxation without Representation. The American colonists were taxed greatly by the crown but did not recieve votes toward those in parliament.
Now today in America, in most states, employers are legally allowed to employ teenagers aged 14 years and up. I am focussing on the small group of 14 - 17 year old workers. This is a small group however according to the BLS this group of workers makes up about 15.5% of the general civillian work force. Keep in mind that is only including workers aged 16-17 years old. It does not account for 14 and 15 year old employees. For arguments sake we can probably assume that 14-17 year olds make up roughly 16.5 - 17.5% of the work force. Now i personally held a minimum wage job from age 14 - 17 myself. On average, i was taxed almost exactly 10% from each paycheck. That includes social security tax, federal income, medicare, and state income. Granted my state (Colorado) tends to be on the higher side of the tax scale. But that only accounts for state income tax. Also granted, if these employees fill out their W-4's and claim Zero dependents, they will still get back most of these deductions during tax return season. I did personally at least (about 90% or so). But i still must ask the simple question, why is it, that the government is allowed to tax the income of employees who are not of legal age to vote. Any workers from 14 to 17 years old are taxed but they are not allowed to legally vote for anything, thus, taxation without representation.? Heck, 90% of these kids could care less about voting or even know what the above statement means, but i did, and i often wonder about why the government is allowed to do this. I sure could have used those extra hundreds being taxed back in the day... Is it simply because technically minors have no legal rights? I may be way off base here. But i know when i was this age these facts always aggravated me deeply. Any thoughts ATS?

www.bls.gov...
www.bls.gov...

Peace

That is incredibly insightful in my opinion. I have never thought of things from that perspective. The only thing I really have to say is that it does not surprise me that this would happen in a "free market" economy. I say Marx and Engels were spot on with regards to capitalism, what it breeds, and its framework that allows for exploitation. What you are describing, to me, is EXPLOITATION. But then again, wage labor is akin to slavery, and the slave-holders the ones who hold the means of production, which in today's age means a firm political holding as well...Terrible.

Originally posted by JiggyPotamus
That is incredibly insightful in my opinion. I have never thought of things from that perspective. The only thing I really have to say is that it does not surprise me that this would happen in a "free market" economy. I say Marx and Engels were spot on with regards to capitalism, what it breeds, and its framework that allows for exploitation. What you are describing, to me, is EXPLOITATION. But then again, wage labor is akin to slavery, and the slave-holders the ones who hold the means of production, which in today's age means a firm political holding as well...Terrible.

So FLAG this is you like what they're say'n ..

sheesh !

reply to post by 0subsZero13


yep.. !! total taxation w/o rep~!!

Wow.. even though I don't vote any more because our votes don't count any more.. but, either congress needs to do 1 of 2 things..

Let them vote.. or

no tax.. simple as that..

reply to post by Komodo


Thanks for the replies guys (: im just glad to see somebody agrees with me; it's just always been a pet peeve of mine
And i agree with you completely Komodo i no longer vote either because let's face it our vote doesn't count towards anything. But your definately right, let them vote or dont tax them you said it.
Glad i was not too off base