Why Pay Taxes?: Your Dollars at Work - HISTORY

Learn more about the history and purpose behind everyone's least favorite activity: paying taxes.

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Learn what inspired President Taft to implement Dollar Diplomacy — getting Americans to invest money in other countries to maintain global influence — from 1909 to 1913. See how this policy failed in China, as well as in Central America and Mexico.

In this video clip of History's Mail Call, host R. Lee Ermey takes a look at how gasmasks work and explains why those sold in surplus stores are not worth the money. Military gasmasks will save your life if they are made and worn properly. When poisonous fumes enter the mask it passes through a filter with a dense layer of carbon and thick padded air cleaner. It is then cleaned and provides fresh air to the soldier or person wearing the mask.

How did the fight for equal pay evolve over a century of United States politics? What did the Equal Pay Act of 1963 enshrine in law, and what effect did it have on U.S. workplaces?

David McCullough Discusses Why History Matters

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