Common Sense: Taxes

“Nothing is certain except death and taxes” is an old expression that expresses the expectation that each person’s taxes are one of the foreseeable but unavoidable aspects of life. However, without taxes, which support all levels of government, we would not have much of what we use and depend on every day: roads, bridges, schools, the military, police and the judiciary, and assurance of quality of food and medicine. The question of the level of taxation that is required to maintain these facets of government is for many of us the primary reason that we vote, and certainly is a centra...