I doubt that many users of this board are excessively wealthy. They should be concerned at this licensed thievery, which is what it amounts to.
Agreed:
For every $1 we pay to government in taxes, we spend an additional $0.65 in compliance costs.
Costs of the Federal Tax System to Taxpayers for Every Dollar of Revenues Collected
Compliance costs 24¢ Enforcement costs 2¢ Disincentive to production 33¢ Disincentive cost of tax uncertainty 2¢ Evasion and avoidance cost 3¢ Government cost 1¢ Total 65¢ Source: Costly Returns, by James L. Payne (ICS Press, San Francisco, 1993).
And even that figure doesn't include the cost of import duties, license fees and other government regulations.
For a typical U.S. family, the real cost of taxes and regulations as measured in 2000 is at least:
Federal taxes 22.4% of income
State & local taxes 11.8%
Compliance costs 22.2%
Regulatory costs 12.7%70.1% of your income is now consumed by government
And getting worse, not better. As long as government is able to play a shell game with hiding taxes from the Voter(i.e. individual) it can rely on the old maxim:
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-George Bernard Shaw
and keep right on growing without bound.
- "There has been a shift in the relationship between individuals and government, he argues, such that fewer and fewer are paying taxes at the same time that more and more are receiving increasingly generous benefits. If it becomes the case that most voters do not bear a financial burden for this largess, then there will be little to restrain--and significant political incentives to encourage--the continued growth of government.
Milton Friedman as quoted by Northwest Florida Daily News, 10-16-2000:
- "If non-taxpayers become a majority in society, what would restrain them from votingfor ever higher taxes on others?"
Walter Williams, World Net Daily, 10-25-2000
So many Americans paying little or no federal taxes makes for a natural spending constituency. It's like me in the restaurant: What do I care about extravagance if you're footing the bill?
Liberty and freedom have a price, responsibility. If that price is avoided there are no brakes on the growth of government, the ultimate result is the end of freedom through creeping socialism.
Right now the bottom 60% perceive little to no "Individual Income Tax" burden,(in many cases even a handout) and 70% of the voting public clamors for more from government looking for the top 40% of income earners/producers to foot the bill. That perception continues to grow ever stronger by eliminating even more participants from the Federal Individual Income Tax rolls as proposed in the tax reduction proposals through changes in personal exemption limits and other mechanisms such as targeted tax credits.
This chart does not look very promising for the future
financial well-being of our offspring, does it?
TAXES
History has shown we can't get there (smaller government) from here (income/payroll tax system).
I think it's time for a change in paradigm, not just another shuffling of the deck.
John Linder (R Georgia) offers a comprehensive bill to kill all income and payroll taxes outright, and provide a IRS free replacement:
H.R.25
SPONSOR: Rep Linder, John (introduced 01/7/2003)
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.
Refer: http://www.fairtax.org & http://www.salestax.org
Make sure everyone, participates in the tax system, give the entire electorate a stake in reducing taxes and government.