Funding Government Without An Income Tax

A question that often comes up is,  Without the Income Tax, how will we ever fund government?"  I remind people that the Income Tax was not the major source of funding in the United States for about the first 170 years of the country's history.  Here is how the Founders did that.

From the US Constitution:

—Article I, Section 8, Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.—

This lays out several ways to raise revenue without direct taxes. Four of the more popular.

Fees—- If government provides a service, they collect a fee for that service.

Duties— Tariffs or dues paid to conduct international commerce.

Imposts— Indirect taxes that are used to fund a related purpose. A car registration fee to drive on government roads or a tax on gasoline to support road construction are examples.

Excises— Fees to sell or transport goods or services. The problem since the Whiskey Tax in the United States is that these taxes are not usually levied equally to raise income but to control or encourage certain behaviors.

What makes these taxes different from taxes like the Income Tax, which is basically organized armed robbery?  Properly levied, a reasonable person can avoid them completely. Unlike the Income Tax or FICA, a person can choose to buy private services, not conduct international commerce, not drive on government roads or not make their living buying and selling goods. Some of this may seem hard to imagine in the current world because government has often backed up taxation with laws prohibiting private alternatives.

It is past time for the United States and the individual states to go back to their heritage.  Taxation should be based on a person taking a voluntary action which they can avoid if they wish.  Taxation should not be based on a person solely living, breathing or making an honest living.