quote

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Winston Churchill
thought this one was rather picturesque

I agree, the image is 'right there' when you read it.

It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

-H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

I'm inclined to somewhat disagree with old Winston on this one. Well I suppose it depends on what you want to call prosperity. Prosperity for the few? Well then, yes tax might very well keep you in the proverbial bucket. However, if you are talking about as "prosperous" society well than Winston is all wrong. If tax money is spent well, it can be very useful, creating healthy and happy people. This can even provide the wealthy with good workers so that they can prosper, maybe even more so than if they paid fewer taxes.

Notice how the top countries here are generally known as those that tax the most: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/hdr03_HDI.pdf

Plus in the end it is all about not being selfish really. I'm happy to pay my taxes, even though I barely have anything as I know it does go to help others less fortunate than I, and pay for services we all use. Nevertheless I'd would really like to see our taxes spent much more efficiently.

…I'd would really like to see our taxes spent much more efficiently…
And that's the trick, isn't it- governments will never be efficient because they simply don't have to account for tax money as they should. Just picture a huge cash eating machine where you pour in $10,000.00 a second, and get .15 cents benefit out the other end. Welcome to government inefficiency. This is the single most profound argument for less government: the less government there is, the fewer dollars they can waste.

T-rev cogitated:

Notice how the top countries here are generally known as
those that tax the most:

http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/hdr03_HDI.pdf

a thoughtful post but i want to point out that HDI (Human Development Index) has not been a stable or even reliable measure of what it seeks to quantify. many would suggest that it tends to favour (in terms of higher scores) nations with a more socialist bent – that is, those that tend to tax more. i'd be very careful in using such a statistic in this particular argument.