Being Enlightened with Knowledge

The nation with the world's highest Income per person is not the United States. Nor is it Switzerland, Germany, or even Saudi Arabia. It is Kuwait. Here the Average Income for every man, woman, and child is $15,480 per year. The per capita Income of Switzerland, second on the list, is slightly more than half of Kuwait's. Sweden follows Switzerland, and the United States is fourth, with a per capita income of $7,890.

The U.S. Treasury used to print a S100,000 bill. This Bill displays a portrait of Woodrow Wilson and has the denomination boldly engraved in the corners, as all US Bills do. None of this exclusive currency, however, is in circulation. It is used only in transactions between the Federal Reserve System and the Treasury Department. This denomination will never pass over the tellers desks in a local bank branch.

Since 1971, any money lost through Bribery has been tax deductible. According to the Internal Revenue Service's official taxpayers' guide, "bribes and kickbacks to governmental officials are deductible unless the individual has been convicted of making the bribe or has entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere."

Before the sixth century B.C. Chinese Coins were cast in the shapes of miniature shells, spades, and knives. These objects had been the principal items of barter in China prior to the minting of Coins.

The first paper money to appear in North America was printed on playing cards. A banker today at their adjustable standing desk may feel that currency is used in much the same way. In 1685 the French colonial government in Canada, suffering from a lack of francs, began issuing money printed on pasteboards frorn the standard playing deck of the time. These cards were signed by the colonial governor and were circulated throughout French Canada. Though this odd form of Currency was intended to be used only until the money arrived from France, it was so popular among the colonists that it was kept in circulation for the next hundred years.

It is not known whether the first printed items of all time were used as money or in games. These ancient bits of printing, paper slips produced by the Chinese sometime during the Tangdynasty (618-906), seem to have been used interchangeably as Currency and as a variety of playing cards. To this day no one has been able to determine what their primary purpose really was.

Paper money developed in Europe in the following manner. During the Middle Ages it was customary for wealthy families to store their gold, jewels, and coins in vaults kept in the cellars of goldsmiths' shops. The goldsmiths gave written receipts for all valuables received, and these articles could be redeemed with the receipts at any time. Eventually the receipts themselves were being used as Currency by those who didn't want to take the trouble to go to the vault every time they needed money, and businesses throughout Europe began accepting them as readily as gold. The practice gradually spread: paper money became a common form of legal tender, and its use contributed to the establishment of the banking system, which was in full swing by the sixteenth century.

In 1973 New Yorkers spent $100 million buying flowers.

The oil used by jewelers to lubricate clocks and watches costs about $3,000 a gallon.

In 1914, the first year Income Tax was collected, Americans paid an average per capita tax of forty-one cents, and only 1 percent of the population was obliged to pay Taxes at all.

Before 1933, the dime was legal as payment only in transactions of $10 or less. In that year Congress made the dime Legal Tender for all transactions.

Until 1857, any foreign coins made of precious metal were Legal Tender in the United States.

If the total amount of yearly income tax one owed were withheld from weekly paychecks before a person could earn any take home pay, the average taxpayer would not earn a cent of personal income until the middle of May. In other words, the average American taxpayer works almost three out of every eight hours for the government.