To the editor:
Mr. James Toney’s letter (“Country can prosper without taxation,” March 17) not only dwells in the libertarian fantasy world of low taxation and limited government but also seems to be ignorant of the history of taxes.
The American colonies, like all of Europe, had taxes from many directions — tariffs on imported goods, road and bridge tolls, document and transfer taxes, local taxes on property, colony levies for militias and other services. Taxes emerged with the beginning of civilization — clay bottles with tokens at Ebla showing what taxes were due to the king and tax records etched in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone was a tax document.
Even before the travesty of the Bush and Trump tax cuts, the United States stood near the bottom of the pack of developed nations in overall taxation — 26 percent compared to an average of 34.4 percent.
Considering the size of this country compared to many others, we could probably stay near there and deliver the much better quality of life that many other countries enjoy if we had a fair tax system.
Except for the income tax our other tax methods were structured in the agricultural society of the early years of this country — property tax, sales tax, excise taxes, document and transfer fees, transportation taxes, and tariffs, to name a few. Before the Industrial Revolution it was a challenge to decide on what basis to levy a tax — most people did not have wage income, bartering and indenture were common practices, cash money was scarce.
Land value, crop volume, vehicle weight, number of axles and merchandise value were all used. Today the entire world runs on money, different varieties but all with carefully calculated exchange rates. Taxing the flow of money among all people and organizations in the country would be a fairer system and would eliminate the thousands of different agencies that administer the star-studded array of current taxes. There would be no deductions or tax shelters so the playing field would be level for the first time in history. The tax rate covering everything — national, state and local — would be unbelievably low, 10 percent or less. The pain of coughing up a bundle for taxes would vanish, except among the greedy.
As I keep repeating, we, the people, deserve a fair tax system, a fair health care system and a fair employment system. Simplicity is the key, but politicians seem to find all manner of excuses to make things complicated.
Donald A. Smith
Franklin
