Taxes, jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., wrote in the 1920’s, “are what we pay for civilized society.” If so, affording it has become far more expensive.
This week, in fact, we finally finished paying the 2014 bill. According to the Tax Foundation, a Washington think-tank, April 21 was “Tax Freedom Day,” the day when Americans as a whole have earned enough since January 1 to pay our entire federal, state, and local taxes this year. That is three days later than last year.
Adding what we will have to borrow (and pay off in future taxes) worsens the picture. “Deficit Day,” as the Tax Foundation calls it, will be May 6 this year. Last year, it was May 8, reflecting a little progress in budget-cutting.
In Indiana, tax freedom came earlier than in about half the states: April 16. But our neighbors in Illinois won’t get there until April 28, largely because they pay more in state and local taxes.
To be sure, Tax Freedom Day this year was about the same as it was fifty years ago. So, it looks like we are now working roughly the same number of days we did in the 1960’s for a far more extensive set of public services.
But that is an illusion.
Because American incomes have risen rapidly since the 1960’s, we are paying vastly more in taxes than we used to in the same amount of time. Not even a series of tax-rate cuts has managed to slow down the growth of government revenues for very long, or reduce the number of days we have to work for them.
When Justice Holmes wrote about the value of taxes, Tax Freedom Day was in February. Are we really more civilized now?
