Alright, you are a simple little old farmer out in the sticks of Western New York state. Now, when the Green Mountain boys came through–well they got themselves some supplies. Maybe took a few horses to drag the cannon, got some flour and some grain, and even took a barrel of whiskey.

So, anyways–they didn’t steal it–they wrote you an IOU for the fair market price. You can even find them today on Ebay upon occasion and purchase yourself one for less than a thousand bucks. The ultimate in cool.

But, you hold on to that “script” for years. Maybe it was backed by the Continentals, maybe it was backed by the state–but either way, after more than five years you figure you never going to get anything for it. Well about then along comes George Washington, or Alexander Hamilton, or some other well-connected political figure with some bucks and offers to buy that worthless script for, oh–maybe twenty cents on the dollar.

Now, you ain’t paid much attention, just going about your business busting tail trying to scratch a living out of the rocky soil. You out in the sticks, you can’t really transport your grains–so you make whiskey. Then along comes some fool telling you that you got to pay a tax. Dogged if it don’t turn out they got to have this tax to buy all those worthless scripts back–dollar for dollar.

The precise scripts that you used to own. The precise scripts that you lost a bunch of money on, and not by your choice either. I mean if you think about it–been better off if they would have just looted the stuff to start with, now you are paying for the same stuff that the Continentals STOLE FROM YOU.

The more things change, the more they remain the same