“Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.” ―Thomas Jefferson

America’s students are taught a bit of Latin. Not to write prescriptions for pharmaceuticals, as might be expected. They learn that E pluribus unum is Latin for Out of many, one. So when they see the motto in the Great Seal of the United States on an after-tax dollar, they know what makes America great.

“Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.”

―Thomas Jefferson

America’s students learn that the pluribus – many – out of which the unum – one – united to win a tax-exemption from a monarchy, was a few real-estate developers called The Founding Fathers. TFF monetized thirteen oceanfront properties – plantations, mills and whatnot – but had to pay a king’s ransom in taxes on everything from guns to slaves.

“We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly.”

―Benjamin Franklin

TFF parlayed the tax cut into vast tracts of real estate, home to an old brave who’d kept it pretty much as the Great Spirit had created it. Wild as Eden. So it needed work. Much more than their slaves, who paid no taxes, could provide. It needed a shipload of invested tax-payers.

“Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse.”

―George Washington

In their wisdom, TFF realized that the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, the homeless tempest-tost, the wretched refuse of teeming shores would want in on the ground floor. So they got their poet laureate to translate the motto for all the pluribus yearning to breathe free and pay the freight that makes the unum great in the home of the brave. That’s the Latin lesson. The rest is history.

“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.“

―Benjamin Franklin