Why Have A Tea Party?

If my work ethic and ambition generates revenue, it is my preference to keep it. If others choose to work less and go through life without an education, whether through a university or in the school of hard knocks, and not provide for themselves; it is not my responsibility to give them the things they are now too lazy to afford.

To each according to their contribution is baloney! If you choose not to contribute to your own well-being, providing for you is not my responsibility. Charity, sure, if you are a hard-working individual who is going through a difficult time; but not because you choose it as a lifestyle.

Let's face it, in life people pay for the things they want. If they want health care and their company doesn't provide it, stop paying for everyone in your family to have a cell phone with an extra $30 per phone for text and surfing the net for each phone, cigarettes - which are nearly $8/pack in Seattle and, if you calculate this for a 3-pack per day habit, each smoker in the household spends approximately $720 per month on cigarettes, or for those paying $100-150/month for cable television service so they can watch and record everything they missed the few times they were not sitting on the couch.

These spending patterns do not incorporate the additional costs of eating out instead of cooking at home and scores of other cost-saving measures Americans are typically too self-absorbed and entitled to consider. Add all of these unwise personal spending habits up and they could easily purchase not only their own insurance policy for health, but also many other things they have come to expect for free on the tax-payer's dime.

The original Boston Tea Party was a catalyst for the American Revolution for a whopping two percent tax burden. We fought for our independence, religious freedom, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, right to bear arms, and freedom from oppression - among many other freedoms once held dear by all Americans. I would love to pay an across the board tax of only two percent.

I did not buy into this "new idea" for tea parties just because I believe in their message and the people I know attending the events come from all political, social, and economical backgrounds. It is time the government worked for us instead of the other way around. Americans are not attending because they made a choice to take off work early or drive for hours because they made a choice to attend. Unlike the opposing view in which many of the attendees have been been prodded by or paid and had no choice but attend because they are the staff of a union or an activist organization.

The subject of tea parties has been discussed among friends for years, but current events and the direction our country is moving in proved to be the catalyst a genuine movement. The government should protect us, defend the constitution, and then get out of our pockets and our personal lives.