Rioters Rebelling Against Tax Cuts

Transatlantic Media Network Director, Reginald Dale, was published March 9 in the Financial Times:

Sir, I wonder if the “anti-tax activists”, who are re-enacting the Boston Tea Party to protest against President Obama’s economic policies, know that the notorious act of vandalism in Boston Harbour in 1773 was caused by a reduction, not a rise, in taxes (Republicans try to stoke tax rebellion, March 3).

The British government actually provoked the incident by removing duties on tea shipped by the East India Company so the financially strapped company could undercut American smugglers of contraband Dutch tea and drive them from the colonial market. It was an 18th century bail-out attempt.

Today’s agitators, of course, may indeed be aware of this counterintuitive and little-known historical fact. If so, they are perhaps protesting Obama’s pledge to give 95 per cent of Americans a “tax cut” – or maybe, more rationally, demanding that US corporate taxes be slashed to make American exports more competitive. In that case, the rebels would, at least in theory, be on the side of George III.