Did it ever occur to you how much money the government is taking out of your paycheck? Have you ever totaled it up at the end of the year? I bet you would be surprised. Think for a moment then, how you would feel if you had to write a check to the government every year for the amount you owed? I don’t know about you, but it would make me think a little bit harder about whether or I not I wanted my pork-barrel senator back in Washington, DC, spending my money.

We need to take a good look at this tax system. Did you know that the original framers of the constitution outlawed the income tax? That should make you wonder why we adopted it at all. Incidentally, it came about as an amendment to our constitution, after politicians promised that most Americans wouldn’t even have to pay a dime. Things sure have changed.

Today, the income tax hurts our economy more than you would imagine. Think about the annual April 15 headache. Haul out the records, grab the old calculator, and lock the kids out. It’s time to pay Uncle Sam. Not only in money, but also in time. It takes 5.8 billion hours for Americans to comply with the tax code each year. And that’s just in time! Millions, no, billions of dollars ($202 billion in 2003, to be exact) are paid out each year as well. (http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/economy/should-we-scrap-the-tax-code-18044/)

Now here’s a bit of smooth operating for you: The politicians have managed to make tax day all about how much you got back from the government! Can you believe it? 

Imaging standing next to someone picking apples, and taking every third one they pick. As they work up and down each row of trees, you eat the apples you took, and throw some to your friends who are following. Then, when the tired worker finally gets done, you get out a two-page form. “I need you to write down how many you picked, and how many of those were rotten. If you stopped to take a breath, I need to know that, too. And by the way, if you’re blind, work for a nonprofit, or you took classes last summer, write that down, too.”

So the poor laborer fills out the form, and then asks about some of the fine print at the bottom. “Oh, that,” you say. “You’ll have to fill out these forms too.” You hand him several more forms, to make sure he didn’t plant his own apple trees at home, or buy some apples from the market.

After he’s finished, he hands the form back to you, and asks why he had to fill it out. You keep him waiting while you search for the number that he’s calculated for you, and finally find it. “One quarter,” you say.

“What’s that?” he asks.

“That’s how much I owe you back,” you tell him. The man’s eyes get wide.

“That’s the biggest return I’ve gotten yet!” He runs off to tell all the other workers, who eagerly share tales of how much they were given.

Does this strike you as ridiculous? It should. There really is a reason why it was outlawed in the Constitution. The founders knew, even way back then, that giving the government too much power was dangerous. They had just broken the bonds England had placed on them, and they knew what it was like to be taxed heavily.

Here is something else for you to consider. Think about the Boston Massacre, the Tea Party, Lexington Green, and even the whole Revolutionary War. It was for a good cause, right? That’s why we’re here, that’s why we’re free. So why have we turned our back on the cause that inspired so man? They wanted freedom from England’s taxes, freedom from England’s outlandish claims, freedom to do what they wanted. But here we are, their descendants, complacent with our high taxes, government control, and wasteful spending.

Have you heard of Karl Marx? I hope so. He was the mastermind behind communism, and published a book called “The Communist Manifesto.” By the way, if you haven’t heard of communism, it’s when every bit of property and business is owned by everyone. Yes, that is a bad thing. It’s what the Cold War was about, and what we should always be on guard to defend against, because it means losing our freedom to the community.

Anyway, in Karl Marx’s book, “The Communist Manifesto,” he made a top ten list of things that should happen before Communism was well under way. They were his “Conditions for Transition to Communism.” Included in the list were things like the abolition of the right of inheritance, confiscation of private property, and, you guessed it, a graduated income tax. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Manifesto)

Why was a graduated income tax so important? Note the graduated part of it. It allowed the young communist government to take the rich people’s money and redistribute it. It gave them the power they would need to steal the freedom of the people.

So why are we so attached to our income tax? Why do we bear with the countless hours of frustration every year, just to give the politicians in Washington more money to build bridges to nowhere, and teach children to watch TV? (yes, I am serious about teaching kids how to watch TV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece_Award) It’s because most of us really don’t know how much we are being taxed. We are never clearly shown how much money is being taken from us each year, and we also tend to think we can’t change anything anyway.

Well, that’s not true. I’d like to recommend an idea to you. It’s called the FairTax. Sponsored by Congressman John Linder, and publicized by Neil Boortz, it’s a plan to put the tax out in the open, by charging a national sales tax. Check out their website at www.fairtax.org, and see what you think. You can also purchase “The FairTax Book,” and its sequel “FairTax: The Truth.”

Believe me, after you read their book (to which I credit the idea of this article), you’ll realize why we need to replace the income tax, and rejuvenate our economy. I also plan on following this hub with another about the FairTax, so stay tuned!