Ralph Reiland Quote

"For the average family, all these taxes now eat 38 percent of gross income, a higher rate of taxation than ever before in the peacetime history of the United States. By comparison, the typical two-income family in the mid-1950s paid 28 percent of their income for taxes. We’re now at the absurd point where the typical family works until noon of every working day to satisfy the taxman, paying more in taxes than they spend for food, clothing and housing combined."

by:	Ralph Reiland Professor of Economics, Robert Morris College
Source:	April 15, 1999, Taxed to Death http://mises.org/daily/190
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Categories:	Government, Oppression, Tax
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Hmmm, that's almost enough to scare some out of slavery.  -- Mike, Norwalk      2
And to think that Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and the rest of those misfits want to raise taxes.  -- jim k, Austin,Tx      3
Some body had got to be lying. It has been said that taxes are the lowest they have been since 1950, with a larger percentage paying no tax at all. Some say that we are entering a new gilded age with superrich and abject poor. Some say that we have to stand up like real men and women and pay the debts that We The People have incurred. Some say that those like Bush who inacted a "temporary tax cut" now want it not to be temporaray. Like the Senate leader Mitch McConell these people are "contemptible hypocrites" at least that is what the Louisville newspaper has called him.  -- Waffler, Smith      1 1
LOL, dateless quotes of what is true "today"... what a joke. Waffler has it right on this one. And independent studies show that under Clinton our tax+debt load were at a low, which King George W quickly destroyed, with both a bump in taxes and a huge bump in debt and the largest recession in 75 years. Yup, the GOP Tea Party is full of lies... and too many on this list are buying them!  -- Anonymous, Reston, VA, US      1
While the average family may have paid 38%, we have had a progressive tax for a long time. As Anon stated, this quote has no date to anchor what "today" means but let me paint a different picture here. Under the current administration, taxes over all are the lowest they have been in at least 30 years. They are the lowest for the wealthy since Jimmy Carter. A little research will reveal that Reagan lowered all taxes in the first years of his administration but most significantly for wealthy Americans, then raised them again later but this time, mostly on the middle class. Under Clinton the rich paid 39%, the highest tax bracket. Under Bush II, some of the income of the rich is as low as 15%, while the middle-class are in the 25-33% range. Get the facts.  -- Popeye, Wichita KS      1 1
Yes, the sad fact is that while the rest of us are being taxed to death, the wealthy--the so-call business moguls aren't even paying their fair share. Which is why the rest of us are paying the lion's share! The Dems only want the wealthy to start paying their fair share---our tax cuts, you know the rest of us earning less than $250,000 a year will be retained. And please don't tell me that these billionaires need low taxes so they can create jobs---WHAT have they been doing for the last ten years with the Bush tax cuts squarely in place. I'll tell you if you haven't been watching the news, shipping jobs off shore so they pay way less in wages and benefits, or cutting peoples' hours so they don't have to pay benefits and keeping the wages low to protect their bottom line. Popeye made the point very well. Out here in Nebraska, where Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world lives, you might find yourself surprised to hear his views on taxation in this country--one problem he addressed is that his secretary actually pays more in taxes than he does and that is not just---but then as he added, we are a wealthy nation but not necessarily a just one! If under the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, this country was bleeding jobs at nearly 750,000 per month at it's height, one has to reflect on what extending those tax cuts will do to the rest of us as we sink even deeper into the morass created by the corporatocracy which lobbies to keep it's billions!  -- Joy, Papillion, NE
Wow the statists sycophants are out in full force this morning. Gasping their last breath I suppose. They fail to understand that BIG BROTHER is no friend of We The People. Go conservatism, go Tea Party...audit (burn) the Federal Reserve.  -- J Carlton, Calgary
I don't need to comment Reston, Popeye, and Waffler, did it for me...  -- RBESRQ
All you guys giving a thumbs down ever complain about is that 'the rich' have too much money and that you deserve it FOR NOTHING. You are a bunch of thieves and stupid, too. This is a bunch of hooey to get simple and envious people to vote for the guy that promises to rob the opposition and give it to you -- only they keep half the promise, they steal from everyone (including you) and spend it on government contracts that make these guys even richer and us even poorer and in more debt than we started out with. When Ted Kennedy was sued, it turned out that he had no money or assets!! So good luck taxing the 'rich' because they know how to play the game -- you don't, so you end up with the bill. Kerry, too. Look at fat cat Gore and sexual deviant Clinton -- just try and sue them for anything -- you will come up with nothing. Remember, that it is Congress that spends, and it was a Republican majority Congress during Clinton's years of economic 'surplus' and a Democratic Congress during Bush's deficit. The facts are in: under Democratic administrations, the debt has increased many times more than when Republicans had a Congressional majority. Both parties, however, will always spend more than they bring in -- they do this every term -- even the so-called surplus during Clinton's term was already BORROWED at interest -- did they give it back? No they just spent it on something else. The government knows that it doesn't matter -- they can issue as much currency as they need, they just put the debt on the backs of the next generation. The death penalty is still the punishment for debasing the currency -- if it were followed, most of Congress and the Executive office who are responsible for bankrupting the nation should very well be hanged.  -- E Archer, NYC      1
Not at all Archer, I am saying I can pay another grand a year as can most people I know. And others can pay more. All togehter we can pay our debt. It is snakes like many of the guys above that can not stand up to reality.  -- Waffler, Smith
I am poor as hell and I can't take it anymore  -- Anonymous
The date of the quote is April 14, 1999. I can see that many of you skim over your history and ethics just as well as you did this quote. It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess.They perscribe their own limit that cannot be exceeded without defeating the end proposed - that is, an extension of the revenue. If taxes are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined with proper and moderate bounds.This forms a complete barrier against any material oppression of the citizens by taxes, and is itself a natural limitation of the power of imposing them. So taxes should be levied not by the amount of income, but by the amount of consumption. Taxes should be assigned to goods and products, not citizens. Under this fair system, the rich will ultimately pay more for they purchase more products, while the poor will still pull their own weight.  -- Publius      2
Yes - I agree with publius that .. Non-food and one shelter items should be 'taxed' and not just the income... as cash income can also be otherwise productively spent to add social-cultural-religious values as well...  -- Vedapushpa, India      1
Vedapushpa, "Non-food and one shelter items should be 'taxed' and not just the income". I am for completely abolishing every form of income tax and relying soley on a tax of goods consumed. It is not my neighbor's business how much money I make. Therefore, its none of the government's business either.  -- Publius      1
Statisticians are lying again. It's far worse. No business has to include their expenses in their taxable income. Why do the American taxpayers have to allow the EXPENSE of government to be included in Gross Domestic Product?  -- Durham, Birmingham, AL      1
The excise tax properly applied to Non resident alien individuals, foreign corporations, the manufacture, sale, or consumption of commodities within the country, upon licenses to pursue certain occupations, and upon corporate privileges. Courts have recognized and acknowledged that individuals can be " Nontaxpayers" ".... for with them Congress does not assume to deal and they are neither of the subject nor of the object of revenue laws." the natural freeborn sovereign individual. " A state may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the Federal Constitution." U.S. Supreme Court.  -- Ronw13, Oregon

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