Those stats are amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Number of full-time workers in the U.S. (2007; BLS): 121 million

Taxes collected per full-time worker: $32,300

And we need more tax revenue?

You're correct of course. The solution I spoke of is just the first half of the equation.

The second half is a tad more confrontational.

While I generally agree… they spend it even if we don't give it to them… hence the $9 Trillion federal debt, plus another $75 Trillion or so in unfunded liabilities.

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."
- Richard Feynman

I think the point of Don's post is pretty clear. We don't need more money going into the tax collectors coffers, what we need is less spending out of congress. Less spending out of congress. Less spending out of congress.

Simple. Congress spends money on wants, not needs, and what are the wants of congress? To be re-elected, which means vote buying by spending on things that make constituents fat, sassy, and happy.

If you give it to them, they will spend it.

Your most important priority as a patriotic American is to find a way not to give it to them. Choke the bastards off.

You left out a third way to raise taxes

(3) increase the deficit!

while we're at it, increasing regulation amounts to a tax as the government demands fees for licenses, registrations and permits and companies spend more money on compliance. Oh, there are just so many ways to raise taxes without calling it taxes that we could go on all night.

There are two ways to raise [tax revenue]:

I don't want to increase tax revenue. Increasing tax revenue increases the authority of central planners who can't possibly know what they're planning.

#2 happens by adopting pro-growth policies

#1 can also lower tax revenue by discouraging people from earning taxable income. For example, a high marginal tax rate accompanied by an exemption for investment can encourage very wealthy people to reinvest more of their income, thus exploring a greater variety of productive organization geared toward producing more common goods and thus increasing the rate of economic progress.

This assertion is not simply theoretical. We've had 90% marginal income tax rates in this country, and we've had impressive economic growth at the same time. In fact, we've had higher growth rates with high marginal income tax rates than we've had with much lower rates.

Lowering tax rates to increase state revenue is very questionable policy from a libertarian perspective. We want less central authorities elected by markets organizing productive resources. We don't want majoritarian statesmen working deals with lords of capital (who are also statesmen) to entitle both parties to more toys.

(1) Raise tax rates
(2) Keep tax rates the same, but raise incomes

#2 happens by adopting pro-growth policies. Oddly, #1 is not a pro-growth policy.