Talking about taxes

I was discussing with some friends the other day my views on marriage (which probably warrants its own post), and a friend reminded me of the tax benefits that come with marriage and that I should at least make my future undocumented relationship legitimized by the state for that reason alone.

But this raises a very important point about taxes, one which I hear rather infrequently in fact. Let me first say that, while I am still of the opinion that all taxation is by definition taken by force (else it would be donation), this is perhaps not the best way to engage people about this topic if you hope to sway some minds. Let us grant that taxes have a legitimate function - the function they are claimed for and were designed for - raising funds for the government to spend on services. Now let us look at how taxes are used in the U.S.

If taxes were meant to perform only the function of raising capital, we would expect that it was being taken from the populace in a fairly 'equal' way - a flat percentage for everyone. But this is far from the case. Of the taxes in the U.S., perhaps the sales tax can be considered to be 'legitimate', though it might slightly bias against people who spend their money rather than horde it. But the income tax is surely on shadier ground - as a progressive-percentage, it engages in a redistribution of wealth so that the rich (who are already paying significantly more money in a flat-percentage tax, since it is a percentage) are forced to part with disproportionately more of their money. Even this is perhaps the most innocent uses of the tax code though.

Taxes are being used in order to herd us into certain ways of life, or punishing us if we don't. There are still sin taxes in place, which is most evident these days in cigarettes. These are additional taxes placed on things like alcohol and tobacco that are meant to discourage their purchase by inflating the price. The cost of cigarettes has skyrocketed from these taxes and the intent of them was explicitly to deter smoking!

Marriage also gets you a tax break. By officiating your relationship with the State and registering with them, you are given certain tax privileges - a means of encouraging marriage in society. Yet what business does the government have suggesting that people get married? Or that people can get married to only one person? Or that homosexuals can't get married? Since only certain types of marriages are recognized in different states, the tax break also discourages and comparatively harms polyamorous relationships where all partners want to be on the same footing, and homosexual marriages in all but a few states.

There are plenty more examples that could surely be mined from the complex list of deductions and the other taxes the state imposes (import/export perhaps?), but better that they come from someone more familiar. These two examples are enough to get people to see that the tax system in America is not so innocent as they want it to be, and that at the very least some major reform needs to happen. A good stepping stone into the world of questioning the legitimacy of government institutions!