WEBVTT NOTE Lady Godiva: Uncovering the Facts About Tax Reform 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 In the days of Danish supremacy over England, King Canute divided his kingdom into four parts. 2 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Each of these divisions was headed by an Earl, who governed the people directly in his geographical domain. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:24.000 These Earls ruled as completely as any despot, the King himself reserving one of the four governments as his own personal kingdom. 4 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:29.840 The towns selected for the sites of governmental headquarters were inevitably the first to 5 00:00:29.840 --> 00:00:33.380 feel the yoke of complete oppression. 6 00:00:33.380 --> 00:00:37.720 The farther away from such a town a person lived in those days, the freer he was from 7 00:00:37.720 --> 00:00:41.140 governmental regulation, control and taxation. 8 00:00:41.140 --> 00:00:46.200 Of course, this was before modern means of communication and transportation. 9 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:53.780 Today government control can be imposed over a large territory very rapidly indeed. 10 00:00:53.780 --> 00:00:58.500 A quarter of a century before the arrival of William the Conqueror in England, the ruler 11 00:00:58.500 --> 00:01:05.180 of one of these governments in England was Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and his government 12 00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:11.940 was centered in the well-known town of Coventry. The records indicate that Leofric was much 13 00:01:11.940 --> 00:01:18.280 older than his wife, but they made a handsome couple and were generally admired. Even back 14 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:24.400 Back in those early years in England, taxes were the ever-present problem of existence, 15 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:30.040 and Earl Leofric was responsible to no one having neither king nor parliament to tell 16 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:32.480 him nay. 17 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:38.580 Leofric instituted a system of taxation, rule and regulation which limited the production 18 00:01:38.580 --> 00:01:42.220 of the merchants and manufacturers of coventry. 19 00:01:42.220 --> 00:01:47.740 We in this modern age have little realization of the amount of manufacturing that went on 20 00:01:47.740 --> 00:01:53.700 on as far back as a thousand years ago. We live in a machine age, and we see everything 21 00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:59.860 manufactured by machines. But back in those olden days, manufacturing occurred too, although 22 00:01:59.860 --> 00:02:06.540 the process was more tedious and inefficient, and prices were universally higher. 23 00:02:06.540 --> 00:02:13.620 Everything even then bore a tax. All goods were taxed. All incomes were taxed. The roads 24 00:02:13.620 --> 00:02:19.980 were divided into sections with toll gates marking arbitrary divisions. A traveler frequently 25 00:02:19.980 --> 00:02:27.120 had to stop and pay toll not once but many times, even during a short journey. And then 26 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:34.500 even his horse was taxed. High taxes and widespread poverty go hand in hand. And the people of 27 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:42.100 Coventry were suffering privation. Gradually a resistance movement developed which opposed 28 00:02:42.100 --> 00:02:54.340 Leo Frick was not an evil man, but like so many who have held governmental posts, and 29 00:02:54.340 --> 00:03:00.740 perhaps still do, he concluded that his welfare and the welfare of his office were of more 30 00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:05.380 importance than the condition of the people he taxed. 31 00:03:05.380 --> 00:03:11.660 And having in his power the exclusive use of force, he proceeded to grind the citizens 32 00:03:11.660 --> 00:03:17.100 into still greater poverty, believing that the public good and the good of the public 33 00:03:17.100 --> 00:03:24.900 official are identical. So he legally stripped his subjects while lining his own pockets 34 00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:29.980 and all with a kindly smile on his face. 35 00:03:29.980 --> 00:03:36.260 Leo Frick's wife was a very beautiful, kindly and generous woman named Lady Godiva. And 36 00:03:36.260 --> 00:03:40.680 when, through her maids and ladies-in-waiting, she learned of the condition of the taxpayers 37 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:47.500 of Coventry. She was heartsick and indignant, and took the complaints before her husband. 38 00:03:47.500 --> 00:03:54.700 The year is 1042, and Leo Frick, Earl of Mercia, is seated at the head of a table groaning 39 00:03:54.700 --> 00:04:00.320 under the weight of tempting veons. Lady Godiva is seated opposite her lord, and they are 40 00:04:00.320 --> 00:04:07.140 alone at their meal. Alone? Well, hardly lonely, for in those days in England, when Earldom 41 00:04:07.140 --> 00:04:34.140 The meal is finally ended, and as Leo Frick leans back in his gilded chair and raises 42 00:04:34.140 --> 00:04:39.860 As the final goblet to his lips, his lady speaks, timorously but sincerely. 43 00:04:39.860 --> 00:04:44.980 Across a half of venison and a demolished goose, she tells the story of oppression that, 44 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:49.340 unbeknownst to him, has come into her husband's realm. 45 00:04:49.340 --> 00:04:54.180 Milord, the town people dine on bread and water, while we have only the best to please 46 00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:55.340 our fancy. 47 00:04:55.340 --> 00:04:58.380 I am ashamed to go out among the people. 48 00:04:58.380 --> 00:05:02.380 They are in rags, whilst I am clad in costly raiment. 49 00:05:02.380 --> 00:05:32.380 Begrudgingly, for, after all, 50 00:05:32.380 --> 00:05:37.380 Leo Frick listens to his wife's story. 51 00:05:37.380 --> 00:05:41.380 As she feels his attention, she becomes more confident. 52 00:05:41.380 --> 00:05:48.380 He is not the villain, she explains, but he has a lack of understanding of the problems of those from whom he collects taxes. 53 00:05:48.380 --> 00:05:55.380 Taxation itself is the evil, and there are many taxes which are inequitable, unfair, exorbitant. 54 00:05:55.380 --> 00:05:58.380 Look, she cries in the climax of her appeal. 55 00:05:58.380 --> 00:06:15.380 If it would do any good, I would take my jewels and pawn them, leaving my arms and throat bare of any adornment, so that the money raised thereby could be returned to those poor unfortunates who own the Lord and who have been taxed beyond all bounds. 56 00:06:15.380 --> 00:06:36.380 Leo Frick is grudgingly impressed. He had not known of his wife's hitherto unrevealed gift of oratory, her interest in politics, or her knowledge of taxation. They came as a complete surprise. With a half-smile of admiration, and half-teasingly, Leo Frick nods in some portion of agreement. 57 00:06:36.380 --> 00:07:04.380 My lady, thou hast a silver tongue, and thou hast argued thy case fairly and wisely, yet with temperance and judgment. But thinkest thou that these problems can be solved so readily? Men must be taxed, else they grow unruly. Tribute is always paid, for how else will the people in the distant realms, who never see their earl, know that they are ruled, and have respect for law and order? 58 00:07:04.380 --> 00:07:11.860 No, my love, tribute and taxation are good. But perhaps I have been more careless about 59 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:18.160 taxes in certain specific instances than is my want. But surely thou knowest this comfort 60 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:24.000 we enjoy comes from this same tax money. Wouldst thou go without this meal? Thou sayest thou 61 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:29.760 wouldst put aside thy jewels, but come now, that is no sacrifice for thee. Thou carest 62 00:07:29.760 --> 00:07:57.760 Leo Frick pushes back his chair and stands. The men-at-arms snap to attention. He is about to stride from the room in complete dismissal of his wife's tender plea, but suddenly he pauses and turns back to face her. 63 00:07:57.760 --> 00:08:24.760 Madam, if thou art sincere, and if thou dost really have the welfare of my subjects in thy heart, prove it thus. Mount thy horse naked, and pass through the market of the village from one end to the other. Do this, and upon thy return I will repeal the onerous and unpleasant laws thou namest, and grant thine every wish in alleviating the excessive burdens borne by my people. 64 00:08:24.760 --> 00:08:44.760 It was said partially in jest, for the modesty and decorum of English ladies were a byword, and as Leo Frick strides from the court where he had lately dined, little did he know that his last instructions to his wife are the most famous of his entire life, and will cause him to live in history and to be remembered for generations yet to come. 65 00:08:44.760 --> 00:08:51.680 to Come. We may actually hear little of Leo Frick in modern times, but all the world remembers 66 00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:57.860 the beautiful Lady Godiva who took her husband at his word. The following day, mounted on 67 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:04.040 a milk-white steed, and, history tells us, clad only in her golden tresses, she rode 68 00:09:04.040 --> 00:09:11.760 the length and breadth of Market Street without a stitch on. And Leo Frick, humbled and ashamed, 69 00:09:11.760 --> 00:09:17.560 accept his word to the letter. Taxes were repealed, and immediately good fortune descended 70 00:09:17.560 --> 00:09:23.320 on coventry. A lowering of the tax burden inevitably provides incentives and a spurt 71 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:27.660 in business activity. Good times usually follow. 72 00:09:27.660 --> 00:09:33.400 Lady Godiva's public protest of high taxation through nudity is not necessarily recommended 73 00:09:33.400 --> 00:09:40.060 today except as a last resort. As taxes go up, we may find that we will all be taxed 74 00:09:40.060 --> 00:09:45.620 to the raw anyway, and in that case a parade of both men and women stripped to the buff 75 00:09:45.620 --> 00:09:47.700 may become inevitable. 76 00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:51.540 Perhaps it would be more decorous to have such a parade with the participants clad in 77 00:09:51.540 --> 00:09:54.700 barrels to emphasize the point. 78 00:09:54.700 --> 00:09:59.100 Whether we come to such a pass or not, there are two things to keep in mind if one truly 79 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:05.300 desires to limit the government's tax forays against the public. 80 00:10:05.300 --> 00:10:11.520 Governments will always seek to increase taxes whenever we ask government to perform any 81 00:10:11.520 --> 00:10:18.520 more services or to provide any more goods. Every new plea for government help of any 82 00:10:18.520 --> 00:10:26.360 kind will be followed inevitably by a new round of taxation. Additionally, governments 83 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:33.300 always expand in the face of any threat, real or fancied, levelled against government. Recent 84 00:10:33.300 --> 00:10:39.300 And overt actions, sired by left-of-center enthusiasts, have had a single result, the 85 00:10:39.300 --> 00:10:44.620 enlargement of government enforcement agencies to deal with the problem. 86 00:10:44.620 --> 00:10:49.220 Perhaps this is what the radical elements wanted, a rapidly enlarging government. 87 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:53.820 If this was their purpose, then the riots, the violent demonstrations, the bank burnings 88 00:10:53.820 --> 00:10:59.180 and so on, which have darkened American skies, were admirably designed to bring about the 89 00:10:59.180 --> 00:11:00.700 results sought. 90 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:06.360 However, if these same persons harbored the illusion that by shaking fists they would 91 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:12.140 get the government to shrink, they were woefully misinformed. All governments will tend to 92 00:11:12.140 --> 00:11:18.580 enlarge as each new dependent is added, and all governments will also enlarge in the face 93 00:11:18.580 --> 00:11:24.180 of threats, whether the threat is made internally or externally. 94 00:11:24.180 --> 00:11:29.840 Now if we are sincerely anxious to see the size of government reduced, then it follows 95 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:59.840 In short, a mature 96 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:06.840 The mature civilization does not require government. Self-control is the perfect substitute for 97 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:13.520 government control. The mature civilization is one composed of mature persons who solve 98 00:12:13.520 --> 00:12:20.520 their own problems without recourse to threats or to social dependency.