[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

For more than six months of every year the average American toils not for his family, for his needs, or for his future. No, for the first six months of the year the average American works to pay the cost of federal, state, and local taxes and regulations. From New Year’s Day until about the 4th of July, you worked to pay for government. This is unconscionable. Our Founding Fathers no doubt would be embarrassed at our squandering of their vision. After all, they revolted at a comparable tax rate in the single digits or less. And yet we willingly suffer an effective tax rate of 50%, and much more in many cases...

Bingo.

[xrp]

Of course, with much of the FR community being overty hostile to libertarian ideals, the bashing of Ron Paul will soon commence.

[Reagan Renaissance]

I track my finances carefully with quicken categories. I track taxes, savings, investments, and consumption separately. Over the past ten full years, my taxes paid are more than 120% of what my wife and I have spent for our total living expenses and all categories of consumption.

If those tax dollars had been spent for defense or for infrastructure like highways, ports, etc, I would have little to complain about. But since two out of every three tax dollars are spent by Democratic politicians to buy votes through socialism, I feel and realize that I am not as well-off as a serf or an endentured servant; I am a victim of involuntary servitude.

If you track your finances in Quicken or some other personal financial tracking program, you can set up classes or simply create a category called consumption, one for taxes, one for savings, and one for investments and move your other categories of expenses under consumption. I chose this because it allows me to track the four major areas of interest to me quickly, efficiently, and accurately. If you do track your expenses, how do your taxes compare with your total true cost of living? Are you a slave and simply haven't realized it yet?