The income tax started before the money became fiat. And taxes never go away once they start.
Currently the income tax serves the government as a means of bribing the taxpayers to engage in favored behaviors. Spend so much on <insert favorite program here>, and you get a tax deduction or even a credit. It's a pretty poor situation when you get bribed with your own money, but there it is.
Of course, the trend is now to move the bulk of the taxation to the payroll tax, otherwise known as FICA and Medicare. That is a pure, regressive, unavoidable tax, unlike withholding, with the added feature that half of it is hidden from most of them as must pay it. Only the self-employed get to see it in all its glory, and they don't count in DC. (Not enough of them.)
Yes, in 1913 I believe (and they only taxed the top few percent of the weathy too, at much less rates than today). But in 1915 it became fiat money again.
I guess we better believe the “In God We Trust” on the money, because when it all boils down to it, that’s the only thing that we may have left after hyperinflation hits and the currency ultimately fails.
I SUPPOSE THE REALIST ANSWER IS THAT THE MODERN AMERICAN IS A “WAGE SLAVE”. That’s why many “working class” I know work two, three jobs. Get rid of the FED and return to a solid dollar and you bring freedom economically (and prosperity)-at least the foundation back to a people.
I hate “national bankers (traitors)”. A good place to start would be the documentary “The Money Masters (DVD)”