If you're under the impression that you spend a metric butt-load in taxes every single year, guess what: You are absolutely right.
Americans spent more on taxes in 2020 than they did on food, clothing, healthcare and entertainment combined, according to newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
American "consumer units," as BLS calls them, spent a net total of $17,211.12 on taxes last year while spending only $16,839.89 on food, clothing, healthcare and entertainment combined, according to Table R-1 of the BLS Consumer Expenditures Survey.
That is a ton of money. You have to marvel at the sheer quantity of it all: Over 17 grand from every "consumer unit," which is the federal government's way of referring to households with real live human beings inside of them.
All of that money could be doing a considerable amount of good throughout the country. Instead it's being shipped off to Washington to be spent on a massive bureaucracy, an increasingly insolvent entitlement system, and a never-ending series of military engagements around the world.
It is baffling to see such an arrangement in a country whose origins lie in part in a revolt over a small tea tax. What happened between then and now to our national character?
From where does this complacency spring? It's definitely a question worth answering, if you can take just a little time off from sending your money to Uncle Sam to do so.
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