The US used to get along fine with NO income tax. Why did this change?

Question

If we could live without the services at one point, why can't we live without them today?

Answer 1

Its part of the redistribution plan of the rich who feed from the poor working man .
In order to indoctrinate the people the government handles education which does not teach anyone the skills to start a business with all the red tape you need a lawyer , engineer,accountant ,and the approval of the clergy .
You need a license to sell eggs -- now who could of imagined in a free nation having to file forms to sell eggs .
So the government has become the police ,courts ,and employees 1/3 of all Americans .
This leaves the other 2/3 to pay for all the services yet never reap any of the rewards .
The government has health care for its workers and yet migrant workers who provide us all with food have none .
The government has a retirement program yet the people who build our homes and offices often do not .
The government Jobs are hard to qualify for except the military who are cast off after 6 years to avoid paying benefits .
The government contracts out work to the family and friends of elected officials rather then those who would do the job quicker , better , and without the usual cost over runs we typically see all the time .
The government has chosen to manage almost every aspect of your life and has done a terrible job . Just ask the 50 million people on the edge of poverty or the 20 million living in it .

Answer 2

As far as services are concerned the world has changed and the government does need the funds. We cannot go back but we can and should get rid of income tax

it is a crime that the second largest government agency is the IRS (right behind the military)

What we should have is a national sales tax. This would be a fair tax as the rich who buy more things will pay more tax. There is also no way to avoid a sales tax we all have to buy things

Three cents on every dollar spent and the government would actually have more money then it has ever had

Answer 3

Because those services that people once lived without also made it possible for you to enjoy things such as computers, HD TVs, the internet, etc.

Those things wouldn't be possible without the infrastructure to support it, such as interstate highways, rural electrification, waterworks and sanitation.

And those things cost money, both in terms of building and for maintaining.

So if you want to go back to the days of no income tax, also be prepared to go back to the days of no computers, no HD TVs, etc. Be prepared to go back to the horse and buggy days, higher infant mortality and shorter life spans because of disease from poor sanitation.

Only 5 years after the passage of the income tax amendment, millions of Americans died from an influenza epidemic that swept across the nation. In all likelihood that would never happen today because your taxes pay for the Center for Disease Control, which monitors potential disease threats and minimizes their risk.

Here's another example. Did you know that during most of the 19th century before the income tax, most firefighting brigades were private? That meant that you would receive firefighting protection only if you paid for it. If you didn't, then voila, good luck with the buckets when your house caught on fire. Today, you receive firefighting protection for pennies on the dollar, far less than you would under a private system, because the individual cost for minimizing the risk is spread out over millions of people rather than you paying a firefighting premium every month. So government actually makes the cost of living your life CHEAPER in some ways.

Are you ready to go back to the old system? I didn't think so. So pay your taxes and realize that even though there is some waste in government, overall you're getting a bargain.

Answer 4

Copied from Wikipedia:

The federal government of the United States imposes a progressive tax on the taxable income of individuals, corporations, trusts, decedents' estates, and certain bankruptcy estates. Some state and municipal governments also impose income taxes. The first Federal income tax was imposed (under Article I, section 8, clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution) during the Civil War, then again in the 1890s, and again after the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified in 1913. Current income taxes are imposed under these constitutional provisions and various sections of Subtitle A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, including 26 U.S.C. § 1 (imposing income tax on the taxable income of individuals, estates and trusts) and 26 U.S.C. § 11 (imposing income tax on the taxable income of corporations).

Early Federal income taxes
In order to help pay for its war effort in the American Civil War, the United States government imposed its first personal income tax, on August 5, 1861, as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872). Other income taxes followed, although an 1895 United States Supreme Court ruling, Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., held that taxes on rents from real estate, on interest income from personal property and other income from personal property (which includes dividend income) were direct taxes on property, and therefore had to be apportioned. Since apportionment of income taxes is impractical, this had the effect of prohibiting a federal tax on income from property. Due to the political difficulties of taxing individual wages without taxing income from property, a federal income tax was impractical from the time of the Pollock decision until the time of ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment (below).

Answer 5

Our govt is much bigger than it was when the income tax was introduced. The US govt owe almost 9 trillion dollars, and they keep expanding govt programs nearly every Congressional session. We spend more on the military than almost all the other countries of the world put together. Our social programs are much more extensive than they were early last century, and they continue to grow as our population ages. The baby boomers are ready to retire which will lead to huge increases in govt spending for S.S. and Medicare.

We could replace the income tax with a national consumption tax, but as long as we have this huge govt to pay for they will need to tax us in order to pay for it.

Answer 6

What you may consider a complete waste could be someone else's life line.To me that's like saying "we didn't have brain surgeons and oncologists at one point, so why can't we live without them now?"

night shift x-ray tech

Answer 7

It was Lincoln's fault. He added it into the Consititution so that way he can finance the war and thus, the income tax was born.

Answer 8

It's the fault of the confederate states. The first income tax was enacted to support the civil war.

Answer 9

Glad to hear you're okay with throwing away the folks over 65, my mom literally would be dead without medicare so that's one person who couldn't live without services.

Answer 10

Socialists have an agenda to get the people of this country so dependent on the government that they cannot live without it.

This is doomed for failure. Look at the USSR.

We can live without social services. Unfortunately, some lazy people who have been led to believe that they deserve what the government offers don't think they can.