Government's Insatiable Lust for Your Money

Is the money you earn yours, or does it intrinsically belong to the government? 

Allan J. Feifer | June 6, 2026

It’s a fair question: is the money you earn yours, or does it intrinsically belong to the government? Governments everywhere have reached a cliff and are in full panic mode. Their need for your money to fund their budgets has reached the limits of conventional taxation. A shrew needs to consume one to three times its body weight each day; its hyperactive metabolism requires it to eat or die. That’s precisely why government entities everywhere have reached their crisis point. The shrew and government share the same instinct to devour everything in sight. What follows is the next iteration of government growth, its perceived need to discover and exploit ever‑greater sources of revenue, and what that means for you and me. 

Government appears to believe your money is their money!

Blue states have already hit the ceiling of traditional taxation, and Red states are, in their own ways, expanding budgets far beyond any reasonable scale. The growth of government at every level resembles lava—slow, steady, and seemingly unstoppable. The numbers tell the story: in the 1800s, the total tax burden was 5–7% of GDP; by 1920, it had climbed to 10%; by the late 20th century, it reached 25–30%; and today, depending on where you live, it sits above 27–30%. Meanwhile, median income has not kept pace. The income tax, once sold to Americans as a levy on the rich, has inexorably expanded, except for the bottom half of Americans, especially through state and local taxes. The result is simple: government’s share of national wealth has grown exponentially, and officials, well aware of the trend, have turned their backs on the public in seeming disdain.

With the old revenue........

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