Doc,
There are just two reasons for taxation and the first is to pay for the services that the govt provides. When Tanzania does not collect enough taxes, it borrows from international sources, depending mostly on the IMF. The US - the largest debtor country in the world - does the same, depending on China. The second reason for taxation is to redistribute the wealth. Students in a school in rural Alabama (or Tanzania) should be entitled to the same standard of education that their peers in Boston receive - regardless if the parents of the Alabama students can afford to contribute to the costs. Education is the only way an Alabamian will be able to become economically competitive with a Bostonian. When this is not done, you create stagnation - as a permanent upper class will always resist the need for change - and a permanently deprived class will remain non-contributors to progress. Reducing tax rates in a society that spends more than it collects, is beneficial to just a handful of people. What it boils down to is that the govt will soon be forced to cut services - starting with the Alabama students - forcing them to remain in ever vicious cycles of poverty. Mervyn
