How do rising levels of taxation affect the rate of unemployment?
Tax exactions, in recent decades, have risen to heights that would have seemed incredible to our forebears. They have become a big, often the biggest, item of a family budget. To business, taxes now are an important determinant of decision making; they circumscribe the production process, specify the nature of business activity, direct its location, and signal failure or success. In the U.S., total tax exactions now exceed one trillion dollars in a three-trillion dollar economy. It is inevitable that, in such magnitude, taxes vitally affect many aspects of our economic, social, and political lives. A tax is a compulsory payment by individuals to government. It differs from all other payments in its basic characteristics: (1) compulsion, (2) apportionment without close reference to individual benefits, (3) use of the proceeds by politicians and government officials. The intent of a tax levy may be fiscal, to raise revenue and defray the expenses and expenditures of politicians and offic
