Taxes as disincentive to working harder?

[aknowledgeableperson]

One of the issues that brought about the creation of this country is the desire not to pay what one considers an unfair tax.
European countries have come from the idea that one pays taxes to the King or Queen, a belief that probably still exists today.  And it was an Englishman who is attributed to first using the phase

The first was Daniel Defoe, in The Political History of the Devil, 1726:

"Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed."

And lately there has been the saying in the USA that government is not the solution but is the problem, a tax code with so many deductions and exemptions that many feel they pay too much income tax compared to others, plus with Social Security and Medicare the idea that for the taxes I am paying now I will not get back in the future when I need the funds.

As for some further insight, for years I was responsible for payroll in a department that had a lot of overtime during many periods of the year.  When some received their checks that had many hours of time-and-a half and doubletime they wouldn't look at the amount of net pay they received (which would be substantial over normal checks) but the amount of taxes paid and complain about the additional amount of taxes paid and that it wasn't worth the time worked.

[FangKC]

I lived in New York City for 10 years as a single professional man. I worked a lot of hours. Never once did I consider the taxes I paid in how many hours I put in--even though people living in NYC are among the highest taxed in the country, and being a single  man who rented, I didn't have any deductions.

The taxes I paid was never an incentive or disincentive to how hard I worked.

If taxes were such an disincentive to creating wealth, the financial community, stock brokers, and wealth managers would have bailed on New York City years ago.

The country's main stock exchange doesn't have to be in New York City.

[Highlander]

I lived in New York City for 10 years as a single professional man. I worked a lot of hours. Never once did I consider the taxes I paid in how many hours I put in--even though people living in NYC are among the highest taxed in the country, and being a single  man who rented, I didn't have any deductions.

The taxes I paid was never an incentive or disincentive to how hard I worked.

If taxes were such an disincentive to creating wealth, the financial community, stock brokers, and wealth managers would have bailed on New York City years ago.

The country's main stock exchange doesn't have to be in New York City.

I do not see tax as a disincentive for working towards a higher income.  If making over $250,000 puts me in a higher tax bracket, then bring it on.  I'd love to make that much money.

(The only issue I have with this income tax discussion is the presumption of income=wealth.  It doesn't.  A real estate agent can have a $300,000 year followed by two $12,000 years.  Making $250K for a couple of years at 54 years old doesn't make one rich.  Making that much at 30 probably would probably portend wealth but not necassarily at retirement age.) 

Anyway, Capital Gains....yes,  a high tax on capital gains is absolutely a disincentive for investment but I do not see the same applying to income. 

[KCMax]

You would also think that with 50 states, we'd have much more variety in styles of governance than we have. And while sure Massachusetts is liberal and Kansas is conservative, there still isn't a whole lot of difference in governance, they both seem to have the same basic problems. I don't know if this because the feds flatten out a lot of the differences or we are constrained by culture, but I think it would be nice if Americans had the opportunity to live in a socialist state with high taxes, but good state services, free health care, etc. or could choose to live in a libertarian state with very low taxes, and privatized services. I guess you'd have problems like the KS/MO poaching problem, but I guess I'd like to see more variety out of the "50 laboratories of democracy" (and yes, I realize this is a conservative states' rights argument).

[chrizow]