When I was a child, people complained about high taxes. Sadly, that day is all but over, at least among the working class. Now the complaint I hear more often than not is service related. And it's not a partisan issue; Republicans are as bad as (sometimes WORSE THAN) Democrats. Everyone wants increases to their pet program, be it military, cancer research or the murder (err, excuse me..."abortion") industry.

The reason people are so quick to demand the increase is that most of them do not PAY the cost of government. It's easy to order the steak when someone else is picking up the check; when your own meager salary is paying the bill you usually settle for the chef salad or chicken strips with a glass of ice water.

See, for whatever else you call them, our legislators are not stupid. They know that if the smallest burden of taxes falls on the majority of citizens, those citizens are unlikely to march on Washington en masse. And they can usually "trade back" some of the tax cost to the wealthy in the form of contracts and other "business incentives" that artificially prop up businesses that would have collapsed in the La Brea tar pits long ago in a Darwinist economy (why is Chrysler still alive? See "corporate bailouts").

As long as the working class stiff pays in $300 and gets back $4000 (yes, it DOES happen), they're not likely to complain. Because they are recipients of the most widespread and scandalous vote buy in human history. Never mind that the per capita spending of the federal government is close to the annual wage of a minimum wage worker; never mind that we suffer from a mountain of debt that is fast approaching unpayable, and we spend at a rate that would make Paris Hilton blush. As long as the money doesn't come out of our pockets, we don't care.

I personally am an advocate for tax reform. We should at least research the proposals of the fair tax initiative, even if we don't implement it. We should also look closely at the possibility of a national sales tax. How many people would rush to lobby Washington for an increase in spending if it meant a 1% climb in sales tax? Let's just put it this way; it would have to be a just cause. Put the surf and turf on OUR bill; how appealing will it look if we know we'll have to be in the back room washing up the dishes before the last shrimp has touched down in the bottom of our stomach?

It's time we helped more Americans realize the REAL cost of government. And the only way to do that is by shifting more of the tax burden back on America's middle and lower classes, rather than the wealthy. It's the best path to real reform.