October 10, 1936 - Article - The Paramount Issue, by David Lawrence
If business picks up, then taxes pick up...... The Government of the United States doesn't earn profits, but it collects taxes. (pg. 11)
The politicians see to it that less than 3% of the 120,000,000 people pay income taxes. The other group - more than 97% - pays no income taxes to the Federal Government. (pg. 109)
Comments: The politicians of today see to it that every worker all they way down to minimum wage is an income tax payer and taxpayer identification numbers are assigned to all newborn children. Again we see that taxes were associated with profits, not wages. The way people think on taxes has changed dramatically over the years, but the people were warned back then that this would happen if they accepted the New Deal philosophy of government. Herbert Hoover, in his book The Challenge to Liberty (1934) stated on page 135 that "the government, in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its actions, is driven irresistibly and without peace to a greater and greater control of the nation's thinking." Before the New Deal, taxing wages was off limits and therefore the thought of it was repulsive to many people. No doubt that is why labor taxation began at 1% in 1937 and was to gradually rise at ½% increments until it peaked at 3% in 1949.