GED Civics!
Hey, again, GED-ers. I know Curtis has been bugging me about the election stuff that’s going on… that’s one of the things on the GED… “Civics.”
That means government, politics, all that stuff is on the GED test. I never paid much attention to elections most of the time. I mean, as long as I had my truck… Now, I’m beginning to realize how much the government affects everything. I’ve got to have disability insurance… that’s the government. And if I want financial aid for school, that’s the government. Even the GED is a government program! And, yeah, that high school I dropped out of was a public high school… that’s the government. I’m thinkin’ that if the government was better, I wouldn’t need no GED. I’d have got more help in school and finished. Maybe.
Not that I’m blaming the government for me not passing high school. I guess it’s all my responsibility. That’s why I’m here, getting my GED. But you see how the government’s important… they build all the roads I drive on, run the schools, take the taxes. I guess that’s why civics and government are on the GED test.
See, the government we’ve got is called a democracy… you all know that. It means you vote on things. It means you’ve got a say in what’s going on. That’s basically the idea. It all goes back to the American Revolution, when the first states rebelled against the British government. Back then, the British government ran everything, like governments do. And, you know, just like now, back then, people got upset when there were too many taxes! Yup, taxes. Now, I guess you’ve got to pay taxes, cuz there’s stuff you want the government to do, and it costs money. How much money and how much the government should do… that’s another story. But the point is, the difference was back then, people in America couldn’t vote for their government. All of it was run from Britain, and Americans didn’t get any vote or anything. They had no say in what was going on, and they thought a lot of the taxes and rules were unfair.
That’s where the saying comes from… “No taxation without representation.” It means, don’t tax me without giving me a say! Don’t tax me without letting me vote! So, I guess the point is, your vote is your say in what’s going on… in what the government is doing. And they’re doing stuff that affects you… like the war, and the economy, and the schools, and even building roads.
I know I’m kind of just running off at the mouth, but I’ve been thinking about this. No taxation without representation… it makes sense, and so I guess it’s a good thing to vote, to get represented, cuz you know you’re going to be taxed. (And tax time is coming up, too!)
So how’s this all get back to the GED? Well, voting and taxes and government are all part of the GED test, so getting to know how it works is a good thing. And why it’s the way it is, too! The thing I’d say is, go out and find out about these elections… what’s going on in your state, your city? What’s going on in the primary? What do you need to know to vote, how do you do it, where do you do it? Look into all that… and next time I’ll talk more about government and give a GED practice question.
To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.
