94 Years of Serfdom

In the first year of the income tax, the world’s richest person, John D. Rockefeller, paid $2 million in income tax, almost 3 percent of the total income tax collected.

People were happy. They had finally gotten the rich.

And themselves as well. Exemptions were reduced and tax rates were raised in rapid succession in 1916, 1917, and 1918. Within five years the tax rates ranged from 6 percent to 77 percent, and people whose incomes were initially exempt now paid tax at more than double the initial top rate that had applied to John D. Rockefeller.

It's Tax Day today. Most income tax has already been paid to the IRS through required paycheck deductions - interest free. Now it's time to dot the i's and cross the t's for last year. Meanwhile, we've been paying our 2009 installments for 3 1/2 months (if you still have a job).