We all know the expression that life's only certainties are death and taxes. Depending on your point of view, death can have its reward (I for one hope so), but taxes never do. Of course, some taxes are necessary, but that doesn't make them good. It is necessary for every country to have an army (unfortunately) and taxation pays for it. But since most government programs do not benefit the entire nation like a well equipped militia, it is only appropriate that the necessity of every tax be questioned because invariably it does more harm than good.
Taxation is legalized theft. Adam Smith wrote that everyone was entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of property" the very same year that Jefferson coined a similar phrase. It is illegal for me to steal my neighbor's money for a purpose that I deem fit, but it is perfectly acceptable for a legislature to do likewise.
From an economic standpoint, taxation fails in that it rarely provides a net positive benefit. For everyone who enjoys social welfare, there is someone else who pays for it. And too often, along the way, there exists a fair amount of waste and corruption that almost certainly assures that $1.00 taken from John Smith's pocket puts no more than $.80 in Tom Jones's.
When government imposes a tarrif on foreign cars to boost the sales of Detroit autmomakers, it hurts the Iowa wheat growers who now face a reciprocal tarrif as they export to Japan. Detroit's gain is Des Moines's loss.
When a state increase a sales tax on a product, it reduces the wealth of both buyer (who pays more) and the seller (who sells less). sale's profit) and the state (which now gets $0 in taxes rather than the amount a smaller tax may have produced).
When a business is taxed more, it hires less, resulting in greater unemployment.
Taxes have become punitive due in large part to the state's insistance that it do far more than it is qualified to do. It runs a retirement program that is nothing more than a ponzi scheme that earns less than 3% on its deposits. It owns housing programs that create low quality homes in dangerous neighborhoods for its tenants. It finances a health insurance program that under pays providers, and as a result, decrease the physician supply. It provides a school system that gives an inferior education to many students by protecting unqualified teachers through tenure.
Taxation is bad not only because it is a form of legalized theft, but also because government fails to use the money as effectively as the private sector would in meeting the same objectives.
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