3.3 Trillion

3.3 trillion dollars. The United States federal government took 3.3 trillion dollars from its citizens in 2015 through direct taxation.

3,300,000,000,000.

That is a silly number. I cannot comprehend what that amount of money could buy. Though with my handy Windows calculator, an internet connection, and an inflation calculator, we can find out together!

Interstate Road Systems (the whole thing): 14.5
Heart surgeries: 52,792,397
Empire State Buildings: 9,293
Cancer medicine for one year : 33,000,000 people
College degrees (four years, state college): 87,672,688
2016 Honda Civics: 177,038,626

I could keep going. Honestly, I kind of want to. This number game got more addicting than I anticipated. Ok, one more.

Apple Iphone 6’s: 6,010,928,961

Six billion iphones? One for every adult on the planet and then some.

This is one year of taxes.

This year of taxation could have bought, over 14 entire interstate road systems at a time when people are complaining about underfunded infrastructure issues.

To be clear, I am not saying that we just need to be more efficient with our tax dollars and look how much we could achieve!

The system is broken. The government confiscates this amount of money every year (and progressively more for the foreseeable future) and provides so little value commensurate to this veritable treasure hoard. Why should we have faith that, maybe, oh gosh, hopefully next year they’ll finally get their act together?

What would have happened if the government had taken nothing during 2015? What if all that value was kept in the economy of real goods and services?

We cannot know. It is this great omission of data which the government relies on to keep their plunder as innocuous as possible. The ignorance of the unseen theft of taxation is insidious. The late great economist Frederic Bastiat summarized it well:

"There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen."

We are constantly assaulted by bad economists. I’m not saying everyone should go out and become an economist. Instead ask yourself one question.

What could you have done with the money taken from you?