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If there was a coherent complaint coming from the Mad Hatter's tea party this week, as near as I can make out it was that we are Taxed Enough Already. Picking April 15 as the protest day makes sense, because all of us have a date with the IRS on that day, and even if your tax burden is light, the stress that preparing tax forms causes is not.
At any rate, are the Mad Hatters right? Are we Taxed Enough Already? Nobody likes taxes, but they are the cost of running a society, so is the cost in New Hampshire out of line? Bruce Bartlett, a one-time member of Bush the Elder's economic team, recently had a column in Forbes where he compared the tax burden on Americans to that in the other 29 OECD countries with developed economies. He was trying to answer the question: are Americans over-taxed?
Guess what? We're not. Total taxes are 28% of our country's GDP. There are only 4 countries out of the 30 OECD member nations with a lower tax burden. Japan (27.9%) and Korea (26.8%) are almost the same as us. Only Turkey (24.5% tax rate) and Mexico (20.6%) have significantly lower taxes. Want to be more like Mexico, compadres? Me neither. Bartlett also looked at the tax burden on the average America worker. At less than 12% of total income, it's about half that of the other 29 economically advanced countries. That's right, about half. Feeling better, Mad hatters?
Bartlett also compared the taxes we pay today to the tax burden Americans have paid over the past 50 years, to see if we are being crushed more today compared to years' past. And guess what? The effective tax rate on the median family has never been lower than it is right now.
So if our taxes are lower than virtually any country where any of us would want to live, and they have not been lower in the lifetime of almost everyone, what is the beef of the Mad Hatters who protested in Manchester and Concord? It can't be our outrageous state taxes; folks in New Hampshire pay a smaller portion of their income to the state than residents of any other state.
Maybe, just maybe, the tea parties aren't about people who suddenly can't handle the tax burden that has been thrust on them since Obama became President. Maybe, just maybe, they have nothing to do with taxes. My guess, they are just a chance to complain about losing the election and to rally the disaffected. And pick up a couple of rating points for Fox News in the bargain.
Here's a little free advice for any Mad Hatters who really, really can't handle our already low taxes and want to live in a place with lower taxes: try Somalia. That entire country has gone Galt, and the effective tax rate there is 0. After a year of living without water, or schools, or roads, or police, or electricity,or a government, you might find that paying a little in the way of taxes has its charms, after all.
