This created a positive feedback loop whereby the people who feel no pain from taxation are able to force those who pay taxes to transfer money to them through the government.
It is financial insanity.
Thanks for your comments. You reminded me of the wisdom of James Madison in the 1787 Constitutional Convention [James Madison on June 26, 1787)[my red bold font below]:
“The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa, or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge of the wants or feelings of the day laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. The landed interest, at present, is prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and kingdoms of Europe; when the number of landholders shall be comparatively small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of the landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability. Various have been the propositions; but my opinion is, the longer they continue in office, the better will these views be answered” (Farrand, Records, I, 430–31). [Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (4 vols.; New Haven, 1911–37)].
Poll taxes came later and were originally intended to expand the electorate by letting people vote who did not own property (i.e., land) by paying a poll tax. Poll taxes accomplished that end, but later they were used by southern state governments to restrict blacks and poor people from voting. [Link]
In addition to poll taxes, my home state used another method to exclude blacks from voting. They required them to read a section of the Constitution and interpret what it meant. I had heard about that, so I boned up on the Constitution before registering to vote. However, they didn't ask me anything. I was white.
I am still astounded by the wisdom of the framers, not just in their cumulative creation, but in their individual writings as well.