A pair of quotes on the necessary evil of taxation...
Hamilton: It is a singular advantage of taxes on articles of consumption that they contain in their own nature a security against excess. They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without defeating the end purposed - that is, an extension of the revenue. - Federalist No. 21, 1787
Jefferson: A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive. - letter to Lafayette, 1823
...as spoken above, taxation is a necessary, the price, as Oliver Wendall Holmes once said, we pay for a functioning society. The trick, as Arthur Laffer points out, isn't the taxation itself but at what point on the 0-100 scale you put it. At a certain point you get the maximum amount of taxes avaialbe.
Anything less and people will save. Another more and people will spend recklessly.
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