Whippee! It's TAX DAY!!!!!!
Today is April 15th, as we are required to voluntarily pay under threats from the IRS.
As I wrote a few years ago, the 16th Amendment was offered as "only a tax on the incomes of the rich." (Sound familiar at all?). Today, we make kitten and puppy stew to have those original tax rates back.
Tax Freedom Day (when the average worker has worked long enough to pay all his taxes) is usually around the middle of April. This means that you work nearly a third of a year just to pay the taxes you owe. Notice I said pay the taxes you owe. The Cost of Government Day which usually is in the first or second week of July is now out another month to August. (COGD means the total cost of government including taxes, regulations and the full burden on the economy government at all levels place on the taxpayer).
From Reason magazine: "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society," said legendary Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. As students of Buck v. Bell could tell you, Holmes had a habit of being monstrously wrong, but if he's right about taxes and civilization, it's certainly worth asking whether we're getting what we pay for." Oh. So America is a club and taxes are dues. Or does that mean we were not civilized until the 16th Amendment?
And so, from Reason magazine, I present a short video for your edification on Tax Day.
Smile and be happy serf (even though a serf was much freer as he only had to provide 20-25% to his overlord. Didn't we go to war with a small island nation a few years back over a 3% tax on sugar?)
posted by Amendment X at 12:14 AM permalink
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