PantyFanatic,

My response to Irish’s question “What the hell happened?” at the end of his post appears to have been too brief. My apologies. What I was suggesting is that as the size and scope of services provided by government has expanded, so too have the taxes raised to support it.

Take, for example, Irish’s “Watercraft registration Tax”. In 1904 the number of recreational watercraft in use was sufficiently small to not need regulation. Once the number of watercraft had grown to warrant regulation, the state’s involvement required funding. One appropriate technique is to raise the revenue, via a registration tax, from those people who consume the service.

Similar comments apply to the “Recreational Vehicle Tax” and “Vehicle License Registration Tax”, unless, of course, one equates a horse with a Winebago or one of the tens of millions of automobiles on the Interstate System which did not then exist, but which is funded in part by the Federal Sales tax on gasoline. Truckers, whose vehicles place a burden of 5 to 15 times greater on the Interstate System than does that of the average sedan, pay for the privilege of consuming the road service at that additional rate by paying an additional tax - the Road Usage Taxes Irish identifies.

Corporate Income Tax, Federal Income Tax, and Liquor Tax all fund Federal General Revenue, and are spent to fund Federal programs. As these services increase in size and scope, taxes are raised to fund them.

The Social Security System did not exist in 1904, and needed to be funded when created. A tax was imposed to pay for this new service.

As for Property Tax and Court Fines, they already existed in 1904.

Now, as to what Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin have to do with this is something I’m sure you’re best able to discuss.

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Eudaimonia