In a column in Forbes, heterodox conservative Bruce Bartlett questions the logic that more taxes equals less freedom.

Another thing we tend to forget is the great benefit of the wealth that almost all Americans have today. Not that many years ago, people had to spend an enormous percentage of their waking hours simply acquiring and preparing food. Now, even among poor households, obtaining adequate food is a minor concern. Indeed, obesity is a far bigger problem among the poor than malnutrition. The freedom to do things other than grow crops, raise livestock and cook on a wood stove is not one to be underestimated.

Because of the declining cost of things essential to life, burdens that might have been unbearable in the past can be borne with relative ease today. Consider taxation. If much of society is barely able to produce enough to live on then even the smallest tax can be extremely burdensome. That's the main reason why tax burdens before the 20th century were minuscule by today's standards: There was simply nothing to tax. Wealth, incomes, output and productivity were too low for there to be much for government to take.

Now that the cost (both absolutely and relative to income) of basics--food, water, clothing--have fallen dramatically from just a few generations ago, people can afford to pay more taxes without suffering the deprivation that similar burdens would have imposed in the past. And we get more back for our tax dollars. In the past most government spending went for wars. Today, at the federal level, the vast majority of people will get back every dollar they pay in Social Security taxes plus a lot more, and Medicare provides a valuable service that will eventually benefit almost everyone. At the state and local level, spending mostly goes for things that people want, like police and fire protection, schools, parks and roads.

Bartlett is essentially illustrating the marginal utility of money. That is, the last dollar earned by someone earning $10,000 per year is worth a lot more than the last dollar earned by someone earning $1M per year. Hence, as we as a nation become richer, the burden felt by higher taxation is attenuated.

But there's another relationship between taxation and the general welfare. Government spending and regulation enable the society in which we live. And the burden of the taxation that supports that spending and regulation are far outweighed by the benefits of the society that is enabled.

Image by Flickr user Dazzie D used under a Creative Commons license.