..The flag of the East India Company is considered to have inspired the 1775 Continental Union Flag, the first flag of the United States, as the two flags were of the same design.[2][3] This connection is attributed to numerous sources. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania once gave a speech endorsing the adoption of the Company's flag by the United States as their national flag. He said to George Washington of Virginia, "While the field of your flag must be new in the details of its design, it need not be entirely new in its elements. There is already in use a flag, I refer to the flag of the East India Company."[9] This was a way of symbolising American loyalty to the Crown as well as the United States' aspirations, like those of the East India Company, to be self-governing. Some colonists also felt that the Company could be a powerful ally in the American War of Independence, as they shared similar aims and grievances against Crown tax policies. Colonists therefore flew the Company's flag, to endorse the Company.[10]...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States

Wie war das noch mit der Unabhängigkeitserklärung 1776, dh. vor 249 Jahren?

Sie ertrinken in ihren Schulden, und so sehen die dann aus, die Ertrinkenden.