Originally Posted by
Sunvox
My brother-in-law wrote a book on the topic. I found it informative.
https://www.amazon.com/Citizens-2-So.../dp/098283280X
Consider this:
1) A man digs ditches 40 hours a week and earns X and pays tax on every hour of income, and if his per hour earnings increase he pays more tax?
2) A rich trust fund kid hangs a Picasso on a wall and the Picasso appreciates by $1 mil. That person pays no tax.
Society requires taxation. Does taxation of labor make more sense than taxation of wealth?
Society requires taxation but not for budgetary reasons and the last thing we would want to do is "balance the federal budget". Balancing the federal budget would create a massive drain on private savings given our current fiat monetary system.
We could argue about returning to the gold standard in which case a balanced budget would be necessary. However, we haven't lived under a gold standard since 1934.