The nature of taxes

It is sometimes jokingly said that there are only two absolute certainties in life… death and taxes.

Throughout history, every organized society has or had some form of government. The roll of government varies some depending on the nature of the society but, at lease in our own free society, it is to protect individual freedoms and promote the well being of the citizens as a whole.

The main reason for taxes is to generate revenue for the government so they can provide services to the citizens that the citizens would not effectively be able to provide for themselves. Former Justice Oliver Wendell Homes said “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.”