Not wanting to join in this bashing of taxes--my views are clear, as evidenced in the title of this thread--but I have to point out that I paid approximately 60% of everything I made last year to the tax collectors! This counts the Federal income tax (about 32%), the California income tax (about 11%), the "self-employment tax" (FICA) for some consulting I did (15%), property tax on my old residence ($2200), property tax on my new residence ($4200), sales tax on purchases (8.25%), gasoline taxes (about 30-40 cents per gallon), a special tax on my Ford Explorer ($300), and probably some miscellaneous other taxes I have neglected.
And of course the corporations that pay me dividends and whose stock price shows gains have _already_ paid roughly 45% or so in taxes, depending on how clever they were at allocating costs to minimize taxes. This is the famous "double taxation" of corporate earnings one hears about. Intel, for example, pays 45% of its considerable income in taxes, sends some of the remaining profits to me in the form of capital gains and dividends, and I then pay another 40% or so in income taxes on this share. The math is pretty simple...there ain't much left over. (The much-derided Laffer Curve is actually quite important here...when overall tax rates get high enough, people choose to do less work. Some of us even retire early.)
Although your viewpoint is well expressed, I feel you've overlooked the possibility of socialism to solve the high tax outrages detailed. Socialism, a truly progressive economic system, would have an actual graduated income tax, to discourage useless make-work by the rich. There are so many other benefits to patriotic socialism, it would take a book the size of Das Kapitol just to list them. For instance: Taxes on trade, will act as a tonic on the national economy. The tax on trade, of course, prevents it; relieving the national security apparatus of 90% of its reason for being. The state itself as a unifying theme, rather than patho meanderings like crime, anti-racism, and religion. Tcmay, you've already acted on your socialistic urges without even knowing it; your successfully operating a free people's spontaneous propaganda bureau. Please develop this further and thumb your nose at the members of your class.