I’ve been saying this [1] for years but it appears at long last that others have started to figure this stuff out:
In 2018, according to Table R-1, American consumer units spent an average of $9,031.93 on federal income taxes; $5,023.73 on Social Security taxes (which the table calls “deductions”); $2,284.62 on state and local income taxes; $2,199.80 on property taxes; and $77.85 on what BLS calls “other taxes.”
The combined payments the average American consumer unit made for these five categories of taxes was $18,617.93.
At the same time the average American consumer unit was paying these taxes, it was spending $7,923.19 on food; $4,968.44 on health care; and $1,866.48 on “apparel and services.”
These combined expenditures equaled $14,758.11.
So, the $14,758.11 that the average American consumer unit paid for food, clothing and health care was $3,859.82 less than the $18,617.93 it paid in federal, state and local income taxes, property taxes, Social Security taxes and “other taxes.”
In reality however, that’s only part of the story. We are paying more even than that. Far more.
Let’s remember, shall we, that businesses get hit with higher taxes. These are companies and organizations that we do business with and who pass those higher taxes on to we, the consumer, in the form of higher prices.
I made the comment 20 years ago.. in this very blog… that 65% of our paychecks were going up for taxes or increased prices… Because of taxes and regulations on businesses.. I believe I called them unfunded mandates at the time… All at the hands of your “àbenevolent government”.
You know as well as I do that the situation has gotten dramatically worse since then.
And if you think that doesn’t affect the overall economy think again. I stipulate that the situation has improved in some small ways the last few years. And just look at the state of the economy versus what we were dealing with three years ago. Now, imagine with me the state of the economy, after even half of the taxing and spending the government is doing were removed from our backs.
As for the proximate cause of our inability to solve this problem, consider the push back from the big government Democrats, to anyone who dares to try shrink government.
Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan, and yes, Donald Trump as three examples.