Great post. One of the most interesting aspects of the income tax is that it started out as a "tax the rich" form of revenue and eventually came to affect the vast majority of Americans in one form or another. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, for it reinforces the one key element of Ross Perot's 1992 campaign that I found refreshing -- his admonition that the middle class should be very cautious about embracing huge Federal spending programs because it is the middle class that will always end up paying for them.
Thanks for the kind words.
Interesting that you mentioned Perot. When he ran for the White House, his tax returns disclosed that, thanks to perfectly legal tax exempt government bonds, his effective tax rate under the current income tax code was around 2%! Of course, with the big numbers Ross had invested, he did VERY WELL on the revenue side.
What you should know about Ross Perot's campaign is that he got in because Hillary had promised him that his company, Perot Systems, would manage the new national healthcare system. He spent little of his own money and the "volunteers" did all the work. He succeeded in giving us the Clintons, which was his goal. Too bad for him he didn't cash in on the healthcare program and too bad for us and the country we got the Clintons for eight years. Perot is not near the patriot that he pretends.