Recent LOLA Talks: Property Rights For Women & The History of Taxes in the USA
For my blog post this month I am sharing with you the content from two talks I recently gave for Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA). The first talk was for an online event discussing what property rights for women looks like around the world. This event was held on March 31st via Zoom and included myself as well as LOLA members from Bolivia, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. I was incredibly humbled to be included but also humbled by how lucky women are here in the US. While we still have property rights issues to keep an eye out for, we at least have a right to own property - which is a right women in other countries are still fighting for.
A brief history of property rights for women in the US:
1900s - only married women could own property
1970s - single women were granted access to bank accounts and loans, which removed the final barrier to single women being able to own property by themselves
2020s - 2.71 million more single women own homes than single men
What is most interesting to me about that last stat, originally from Lending Tree but written about in this Realtor article, is that the study found single women are making more sound financial decisions than their single male counterparts right out of college. Those decisions have put single women ahead of men when it comes to owning homes - way to go ladies!
I could not talk about property rights without talking about my least favorite tactic of the government to acquire property - Eminent Domain. Some of the worst examples of Eminent Domain include: Central Park, Lake Lanier, and Dodger Stadium. Each of these attractions was put in at the cost of destroying black and brown neighborhoods. In my town we’ve seen Eminent Domain be used for a practice shooting range for police officers and most recently, a traffic roundabout. None of these things are worth stealing property from citizens. Not a single one.
Ways to speak out against property rights infringements:
Email city council and city planners
Sign up to speak at city and county meetings
Write a letter to your local newspaper
Work directly with the property owners under attack (a lot of times during Eminent Domain talks they are limited by what they can do or say)
The last example I gave during this talk is an issue I discovered while trying to help with the homeless population in Wichita. The city of Wichita recently changed their ordinance surrounding the homeless, which was a bad move all around, but one of the worst changes actually makes it illegal for a property owner to give someone permission to camp on their property. If I have a large yard or an extra lot and I want to give someone written permission to camp for a month or however long is agreed upon, I would actually be breaking the law after a couple days. The camper could be forcibly removed and I could be fined. This is both a property rights violation and a clear way that the government is actually contributing to the homeless situation.
The second talk I recently gave for LOLA was held on Tax Day and was discussing the hidden burden on taxes on everyday Americans. Other speakers included Dan Behrman, Holly Jean Soto, and Caitlin Peters. I spoke way too fast and fit in a history of taxes in around 7 minutes.
Timeline of Taxes in the US:
1765 - Stamp Act 1765
1773 - Tea Act / Boston Tea Party
1794 - Whiskey Rebellion
1861 - First Federal Income Tax (to fund Civil War)
1913 - 16th Amendment (legalizing federal income tax)
1940s - Automatic paycheck withholding begins
1960s - Taxes expanded to fund Social Security and Medicare
1980s - Reagan Tax Cuts
1990s - Clinton Tax Raises
2000s - Bush Tax Cuts
2010 - Affordable Care Act (uses taxation to force insurance coverage)
2017 - Trump Tax Cuts
2022 - IRS expanded to allow for more agents, more audits, more enforcement, and more monitoring including all our digital transactions
My conclusion to this talk was that we have gotten it so wrong. The tax reality we are living under was not what the Founding Fathers had in mind for us. They cautioned early on that taxation would be used as a tool of government control. Income tax has never been as it was promised. Do social programs really justify the means of force by which they are funded? It is important that we continue to have these conversations, be creative when exploring solutions, and resist taxation wherever we can.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, feel free to message me on IG.
XO - Olivia
