Who Pays?

CNN reports that in 2009, 47% of Americans, or roughly 71 million people, won’t pay a dime in federal income taxes. In fact, some of these folks will actually be owed money by the government because of various social safety net programs.

At first glance, this might seem like welcome news. Maybe the summer tea parties really had an effect.

Unfortunately, however, all it really means is a smaller and smaller pool of taxpayers are responsible for financing the growing largess of the federal government.

And although every American aged 18 and older has the right to vote for our representatives in Washington, it turns out that only about 50% of them will actually pay for effects of those votes.

And the result, as a number of folks have pointed out, is this:


It is much easier to be complacent to massive increases in government spending, and vote for those who support it, if the dollars aren’t coming out of your pocket.