Do you know, when I searched that document for the "%" sign, I got exactly zero hits? It's all absolute dollar amounts, guaranteed to push your buttons. It's not exactly irrelevant to compare the standard of living in 1904 to our standard of living today. Funny, isn't it, that we're materially better off now despite a higher tax rate?

Asking me what I consider the highest acceptable tax rate is a red herring. The proper answer--as high as it needs to be to meet the national needs--varies across time and circumstances. The tax rate took a heavy spike up during WWII, as it had to. There was nothing evil in that.

I think it's rather more relevant to ask you whether you'd want to return to the good old days of 1904 if it would reduce your tax burden. In what way were we better off then than we are now?

It's significant too that taxation grew after WWII at a rate consistent with the growth of America's stature and responsibilities in the world. How else would you have paid for our Cold War military? Where would the foreign aid dollars that we hoped would buy loyalty have come from otherwise? Is it just possible that the taxes we paid during the Cold War are ultimately what defeated the Soviet Union?

How would you have funded the Interstate Highway System, which was an almost immeasurable boon to commerce, without Federal funding? (And oh please don't give me the Libertarian toll roads argument. If ever there was a chicken-and-egg deadlock, public infrastructure is it in spades.)

I don't have time to search it down, but how about comparing the taxation rate against the poverty rate? It certainly is much lower nowadays, and--dare I say it?--that was accomplished through a transfer of wealth. Do you argue that reducing the poverty rate is in some way not a benefit to society overall? There's more than one way to interpret the chestnut "a rising tide lifts all boats". Seems to me that our societal boat has been raised much higher by proactive action than it ever has by sitting passively and waiting for the trickle-down effect to work.

I understand that there's a spurious comfort in numbers, but they never tell all the story. Look behind the numbers for the real meanings.