What Government Really Costs

Since 1949, too-high tax rates have reduced America's GDP by more than half.

by Rod D. Martin
September 20, 1997

In the book of First Samuel, God's people Israel decide that they want a king, "to be like the other nations." Up to that point they had had very limited, decentralized government, but as in our own day, the ancient Israelites were increasingly enchanted with what big government could give them. Having been out of Pharaoh's Egypt four hundred years, they had forgotten that "any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take from you everything you have."

In granting their wish, we are told, God first warned the Israelites of the tyranny that would be possible if and when they someday had an evil king. Astounding to modern eyes as it may be, one of the things He listed as tyranny was a tax rate as high as ten percent.

My, my, those must have been the days.

Today, we live in an America where the average taxpayer works until July 2 just to pay the government; less than half of what he makes is his own. By contrast, medieval serf…