Americans Spent More on Taxes in 2018 Than on Food, Clothing and Health Care Combined


MFP Commentary:
The founders balked at a total tax rate of 5%,  and went to war over it. Now most Americans pay in excess of 100 taxes that amount to over half of what they make.  (Chattel slaves in the south had about 50% of their productivity confiscated by the plantation owners. )  Can you tell me what the difference is between today’s taxes, and being a chattel slave? Not  much except that the burden is less on the slave owner. (government)
The founders would have revolted long ago IMHO.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
~Thomas Jefferson

~MFP

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By Terence P. Jeffrey | October 2, 2019 | 5:06 AM EDT

A grocery shopper in Los Angeles on July 24, 2019. (Photo by Mark RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Americans on average spent more on taxes in 2018 than they did on the basic necessities of food, clothing and health care combined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey.

The survey’s recently published Table R-1 for 2018 lists the average “detailed expenditures” of what the BLS calls “consumer units.”

“Consumer units,” says BLS, “include families, single persons living alone or sharing a household with others but who are financially independent, or two or more persons living together who share major expenses.”

In 2018, according to Table R-1, American consumer units spent an average of $9,031.93 on federal income taxes; $5,023.73 on Social Security taxes (which the table calls “deductions”); $2,284.62 on state and local income taxes; $2,199.80 on property taxes; and $77.85 on what BLS calls “other taxes.”

The combined payments the average American consumer unit made for these five categories of taxes was $18,617.93.

At the same time the average American consumer unit was paying these taxes, it was spending $7,923.19 on food; $4,968.44 on health care; and $1,866.48 on “apparel and services.”

These combined expenditures equaled $14,758.11.

So, the $14,758.11 that the average American consumer unit paid for food, clothing and health care was $3,859.82 less than the $18,617.93 it paid in federal, state and local income taxes, property taxes, Social Security taxes and “other taxes.”…Read More