Here's why you should worry about living in a country where increasing numbers of people can live without working. Filing our tax returns last week, I deplored government having confiscated 29.7% (effective rate) of my and my wife's joint 2013 income (Federal, 21.7%; state and local, 8%).  That seemed scarcely worse than medieval lords confiscating one-third of peasants' crops. Speaking of lords, both the President of the United States and the Mayor of New York (et uxores) paid 2013 income taxes at lower effective rates than mine and my wife's (20.4% for the President and a measly 8.3% for the Mayor).  Maybe there's a tax penalty for living in tract houses clad in middle-class vinyl and plywood instead of public mansions made of government granite and marble. But here's the real rub: every governmental levy at every level functionally taxes our income.  And, if you're anything like me and my wife, your functional rate of income...(Read Full Post)