See here too:

http://www.cbpp.org/3-27-07tax.htm
Mark Thoma | Homepage | 03.29.07 - 5:32 am | #

FYI, it's not really true that they never look at what government provides in return. This is on their homepage right now:

http://www.taxfoundation.org/pub.../show/ 2282.html
Dan | Homepage | 03.29.07 - 7:15 am | #

Dan: fair enough, but I never said that they *never* looked at what government services are provided; my point was that in their "tax freedom day" analysis, they don't compare the services that people receive from the government with the services that they receive from other things that people spend money on.
Kash | Homepage | 03.29.07 - 8:32 am | #

Interesting post.
wally | 03.29.07 - 8:59 am | #

Personally, I'd like to reduce those 17 days I work for the national defense down to less than a week...
Marcus Aurelius | 03.29.07 - 4:49 pm | #

I think the way you break it down looks a lot worse.
JoshK | 03.29.07 - 8:41 pm | #

A few things in this post really surprised me. Good stuff!
Matt
John Ruul | 04.02.07 - 9:11 pm | #

They also do not take into account debt (deferred taxation) or the deadweight losses associated with taxation . . . leading to a significant understatement of the "burden of taxation."
Scott | 04.05.07 - 10:29 am | #