A rant on taxation

What's wrong with taxation? Taxes are levied on a population to help pay for social services like education and healthcare, and infrastructure like roads and bridges.

Taxes keep the population believing they are wealthier because they can afford them.

Most taxes aren't real. They are an illusion. The majority of our taxes are paid before we even get our paycheque.  More than one quarter of our take-home pay is removed by our employers through payroll deductions. The other quarter is paid when we buy small things or when we show wealth through ownership of cars and houses.

Half of our taxes are never seen. You don't make $20 per hour. You only make $15 because that's what you take home. Which means not only does your employer make money off your labour, so does the government.

It's the cost of doing business and we accept it.

Let's shift the gear on taxation to property. In feudal times, the king would tax the population in return for use of his land. However in using the land as a resource, the population would cultivate it to create goods and services to make even more money for themselves.

In fact, the king was an employer taking his share of the labour's foil. He offered protection from enemies. He was the landlord looking for his rent. The king did not sell his land. He rented it.

Governments sold the land. But when the money was spent foolishly, they had to come with a new source of revenue so they used the idea of property tax from feudal times. They are not the new kings. They do not own the land. They have no right to tax the land. The land was sold. It is not rented.

The more land you own, the more taxes you are obligated to pay. The value of the land is determined by the value of buildings on that land as well as the value others would pay for that same land.

Government didn't build the buildings, nor do they want the property. They want taxes: to pay for services, employment and jobs.

I am left thinking if the air we breathe could be taxed, the government would surely be licking their chops. Air, not land, is a true measure of value. For without it, we do not survive.

Alas, governments do tax air. A home taking up more square footage will be deemed to have more value than a smaller one. A skyscraper 100 stories tall will be taxed more than a bungalow on an equal piece of property. Value is derived by the space occupied.

Occupied space is nothing more than air. And it gets taxed lucratively.

Half the time air isn't seen, just like our taxes.