Taxation Without Representation:The Tax Paying Young

Millions of Americans among us are living without a basic constitutional right.

They live by the rules the government has placed on them. They can be sentenced by a judge to spend time in federal prison, yet have no say in the politicians who frolic around the government spending their money and making the laws enforced on them.

How do I know? I’ve been one of them for the last ten years of my life. For the first time this year ill be eighteen and therefore able to vote in this upcoming election. Still, millions will continue to be left without any voice in a big part of their lives-the spending of their dollar. 

At the age of 17 I have payed over 10,000 dollars in income tax alone-not including the sales tax I pay every time I purchase something. That’s money I have been earning since the age of eight when I started publishing my own newspaper, The Orange Street News. This is money I have worked hard to earn.

A change needs to be made.

The usual argument against teens being able to vote centers around the idea that they lack maturity and intelligence-which might be based in reality. According to the University of Rochester’s medical center, adult brains work differently than teens whose brain, they claim, isn’t fully developed until around age 25. However, it becomes harder to buy that argument when you consider that our country has never followed that logic. An American can be drafted into the military at 18 yet can’t drink until the age of 21. This alone should be evidence enough to end the delusion that the current rules are based on the best interest of the people when in reality it is almost always about wanting money and power over the people.

But this issue is about much more than the injustice of taxation without representation, it’s an issue of basic fairness. If we are old enough to make money that we are forced to give to the government then we are old enough to have some sort of say in where that money goes. 

If the argument made is that a teen’s brain is underdeveloped then the logic should follow that teens shouldn’t be allowed to fund expenses that they aren’t ’mature’ enough to comprehend.

For decades politicians on both sides of the aisle have spent money the country doesn’t have, racking up a debt of 22 trillion dollars. By 2031 that debt is expected to be over 47 billion dollars. Guess who is going to have to pay that debt? 

Today’s teens.

No one is making the argument that young people should expect all of the rights given to adults. Who wants to see a twelve year old behind the wheel of a car? Not me.  

Even if lowing the voting age isn’t the most practical solution-something needs to change to fix this injustice. 

If lowing the voting age isn’t a viable option, maybe a middle ground can be found in eliminating the income tax burden that those who earn incomes and are under the age of 18 are expected to pay to better reflect the people who are funding the governments expenses.

The issue may be complex, but what is clear is that forcing younger Americans to give a share of their money to a government in which they have no voice is unethical and is robbing millions of Americans from one of the most basic Constitutional principles, that there should be no taxation without representation. 

So as we all watch the 2024 election race in horror, I ask that we don’t forget the millions who can only spectate and wonder about the fate of the country, All the while knowing they will be the ones forced to pay for it.