The Articles of Confederation denied Congress the power to collect taxes, could a government survive today without this power?
1 Answer
Yes but a government does need a source of income.
Explanation:
The State of Alaska does not have an income tax. The income from the export of Oil funds that State.
The people of Kuwait also do not pay taxes for the same reason as the people of Alaska.
Unfortunately the 13 States of the original United States had no large source of income. Congress collected some money from tariffs on imports. The north was in favor of high tariffs to collect money and protect its young manufacturing industries. The south was opposed to high tariffs because the south exported agricultural products and imported manufactured items. This political infighting limited the amount of money Congress could raise.
Congress was reduced to asking for donations from the states which were slow in coming or refused. leaving Congress without enough money to function as a government. Congress did not have enough money to pay for the army or navy.
