When is humor no longer funny?

[kandrathe]

Obviously, your and my view of what taxes are, what government is for, and who Robin Hood is are not going to be reconciled anytime soon.

Granted.

However, on some factual points, you are almost certainly wrong. Tax receipts (inflation adjusted) according to the Heritage graph, have grown by almost nothing since their peak in 2000, and yet real GDP has grown by nearly 20%. How can that be consistent with the claim that tax revenue has outpaced GDP growth?

The rate related to GDP has remained flat at about 9%. I meant that the amounts of taxes levied have increased due to economic expansion, while the tax rates across the board have been lowered. With a constant time frame of say the 50 years from 1965 to 2005, the federal taxes levied have gone from 620 Billion to 2300 Billion, which is about 370%. The GDP(adjusted for inflation) in 1965 was about $3214 Billion, and in 2005 it was about $10878 Billion which is about a 338% rise. This means that the cost of government (when you include debt) has grown over the past 50 year faster than that same 370%, which translates to on average 6% to 10% per year depending on which numbers you use. There is then a 32% (over 50 years) faster growth in revenue than GDP. Another question then is to where has all this extra money gone? Poverty remains pretty constant over the past 50 years (source), and inflation has been well below the growth rate of government.

Afterthought: Which econ textbook is that?

The textbook was "America's Great Depression" by Rothbard. I have and would also recommend "Capitalism and Freedom" by Milton Friedman and "Human Action" by Ludvig Von Mises.