“When we think or talk about taxes, we ought to recollect that we lie down in peace and sleep in safety; that we can follow our farms or stores or other occupations, in prosperous tranquillity; and that these inestimable blessings are procured to us by the taxes that we pay. In this view, our taxes are properly our insurance money; they are what we pay to be made safe, and, in strict policy, are the best money we can lay out”
Granting that many may have issue with Thomas Paine’s take on taxes; and that many may have disagreements with how our government spends the money it collects, or the way it goes about collecting it, I offer Paine’s words nonetheless in hopes it may soften the blow from earlier this week of paying the taxman.
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thomas paine tax taxes irs internal revenue service income tax