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A New Way to Look at Taxes

Almost twenty years ago economist Mark Skousen [1] penned a little essay, Persuasion Versus Force [2], that has the power to change how we look at taxation forever.

One early paragraph sets the stage:

“Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “˜Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.’ But isn’t the opposite really the case? Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.”

On this Tax Day, read the entire essay and you may just come away with a more profound understanding of what this day, and the Tea Party [3] protests are really all about.

Persuasion Versus Force [4]


Steve Buckstein [5] is Senior Policy Analyst and founder of Cascade Policy Institute [6], a Portland-based think tank.

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