There’s a lot to celebrate this Independence Day, as we mark the 249th anniversary of our national divorce from Great Britain and the abuses of King George III.

Yet under the flags and fireworks, the hotdogs and hamburgers, and the checkered tablecloths camouflaged in red, white, and blue, lies an uncomfortable, ironic truth: You're not as free as you think.

This may sound absurd, inappropriate, even unpatriotic. How could this be, in “the land of the free”?

The fact is each of us is shackled by invisible economic, regulatory, and civil chains.

Hidden in plain sight is a tangled, ever-expanding web of federal, state, and local taxes, programs, regulations, spending, and debt—the overwhelming majority of which unjustly constrain and violate our God-given natural rights.

Perhaps the most egregious example is the progressive federal income tax, which gives the government first claim on your earnings and punishes you in direct proportion to your annual productivity (the amount of service you provide in the marketplace). Though seemingly as unavoidable as death, the federal income tax is a relatively new invention in our country’s history, dating back only to 1913, when the top rate was 7% and only 1% of Americans paid any income tax at all.

Today, combined federal, state, and local taxes are over 30% of American’s income. This means that the average American is losing almost 30 cents of every dollar they earn to taxes. At this point it’s worth remembering that the Sons of Liberty hosted their famous Boston Tea Party after a 3% tax on tea.

When you earn a dollar, your employer is taxed for paying you (payroll tax). You are then taxed before it hits your bank account (income tax). When you spend that dollar, it is taxed again (sales tax). If you decide to invest that dollar, you are taxed (capital gains tax). Even when you save that dollar—in your bank account or in your piggy bank—it is continually devalued (inflation tax) by Congress’s spending, borrowing, and money-printing addiction.

Many states still extract personal property taxes from their residents, while all 50 states levy taxes on real property (land and structures). Under this regime, you and I will never truly own our property. We’re simply renting it from our benevolent state overlords, who will confiscate it if we do not comply.

Excessive regulations at every level further burden and constrain us. The Code of Federal Regulations, where all federal rules are codified, spans nearly 200,000 pages and 250 volumes. All of it created by government bureaucrats, none of it voted on by our elected representatives.

Federal and state business regulations, such as start-up red tape, interstate commerce restrictions, and business licensing fees, strangle small businesses, employers, jobs, and your ability to provide for your family. Excessive occupational licensing requirements limit your professional opportunities.

Your ability to use your land is severely regulated by zoning laws and property use restrictions. Want to build a shed? You’re going to need a government permission slip. Imagine explaining that to George Washington.

Our civil liberties are continually under threat. During the days of COVID, we saw how quickly totalitarian measures could be snapped around our wrists. Some of these included injurious vaccine mandates, government-directed censorship of free speech, enforced business closures, as well as travel and movement restrictions. These abuses not only trampled our freedoms, they crushed human lives.

Today, parents’ rights and duties to protect their children are under assault. In some states, your Second Amendment right to protect yourself and family has become criminalized.

Civil asset forfeiture allows authorities to seize your property on mere suspicion without charging you with a crime.

Domestic and financial government surveillance is rampant and violates our Fourth Amendment right to privacy. Though the “Patriot” Act was revised, mass surveillance continues, and government A.I. integration will exponentially escalate these dangers.

Eleven years before the Declaration of Independence was drafted, British Parliament passed the Stamp Act of 1765, which required American colonists to pay taxes on almost all printed materials. In response, American Patriot John Dickinson penned a stark warning about government overreach:

“If you comply with the Act by using Stamped Papers, you fix, you rivet perpetual Chains upon your unhappy Country. You unnecessarily, voluntarily establish the detestable Precedent, which those who have forged your Fetters ardently wish for, to varnish the future Exercise of this new claimed Authority.”

Recognizing our current state of soft subjugation this Independence Day may seem unfitting, but now is the perfect opportunity to face these facts. Our founders would want us to. Anything else would be unserious and un-American.

We must work tirelessly to unwind this web of abuses—at the federal level and across our states and cities. It’s up to us. But do not despair: You are American. There is freedom in your veins.

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Paul Mullen is the RISE Campaign Coordinator and a Senior Associate for Marketing at The Heritage Foundation.

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