Liberal tax enthusiasts love to throw around the line that federal revenue is the literal lifeblood of a nation, but an examination of what taxpayer funds are actually spent on makes their point hard to sympathize with.
Roads, as shown in this meme, are perhaps the most common justification for the fact that the United States has among the highest corporate and individual tax rates in the world — even after Republican lawmakers passed the Trump-endorsed tax cuts toward the end of 2017.
Obviously, there are many other examples thrown around, but since this is the most common we’ll just stick with this one for now. Would the international highway system be possible without taxation? Or, as many libertarian economists argue, could private enterprise fill in the gap?
To answer this question, we need only look at history. The taxation system as we know it came out of a Constitutional amendment passed in 1913, which granted Congress the power to levy individual taxes. Mind you, this was supposed to be a temporary measure, and it was really only supposed to apply to the top 1% of income earners in the country, but that’s generally how progressivism works.
So…were there roads prior to 1913? Of course there were. Did they come in the form of the mega highways we’re familiar with now? Of course not — and they would have no reason to considering the horse and buggy was still a common means of transportation.
Market developments respond to market demands, and there’s no reason to think businesses wouldn’t see the benefit of providing an easily accessible means of transportation.
~ Facts Not Memes
