The Value-Added Tax Is Not the Answer

[Human Events, March 11, 1972.]

One of the great and striking facts of recent months is the growing resistance to further taxes on the part of the long-suffering American public. Every individual, business, or organization in American society acquires its revenue by the peaceful and voluntary sale of productive goods and services to the consumer, or by voluntary donations from people who wish to further whatever the group or organization is doing. Only government acquires its income by the coercive imposition of taxes. The welcome new element is the growing resistance to further tax exactions by the American people.

In its endless quest for more and better booty, the government has contrived to tax everything it can find, and in countless ways. Its motto can almost be said to be "If it moves, tax it!"

There's apparently nothing new in the VAT "trial balloon" you can see floating overhead in the Washington, DC skies. Murray N. Rothbard warned us years ago that it was a deceptive way for government to loot and plunder us while blaming someone else.