Sometimes, taxes are imposed as a substitute for a law, especially when such a law would not be possible. For instance, poll taxes were routinely used as a sub

Sometimes, taxes are imposed as a substitute for a law, especially when such a law would not be possible. For instance, poll taxes were routinely used as a substitute for laws banning black Americans from voting. Attempts to punish tax evasion that are more costly to pursue than the revenues generated from the tax being evaded are tyrannical. The cost-benefit analysis makes it clear that the tax in question is a lever to control people rather than a means of raising revenue for some particular purpose. Please don't try to argue with my foil-hatted self. I have tried it on occasion, and it just never works. Better for me to just cram it into a locked compartment of my brain, and only let it out for entertainment purposes. But even my more rational personality components can detect the odor of trimethylamine in the Federal Reserve-Treasury relationship. Perhaps it is because I can still hear foil-hat tapping on the pipes when it is locked up, but the manner in which the government measures inflation and publishes inflation statistics is not entirely honest. Look into price indices [0], and in particular, the price indices that US policymakers use [1] [2]. It is clear that they choose to use measures that understate real inflation. Furthermore, they occasionally change the method of calculation, without putting hard breaks in all the time series graphs. That can cause the index to further understate inflation. That isn't to say that you should believe the favorite sites of fearmongers and gold-hawkers (i.e. ShadowStats) either. Be skeptical of anyone trying to tell you what your money is worth. Trying to track money through the government is more than a full-time job, and would be a boring and infuriating hobby for an amateur. As such, few people can perceive how their taxes become... well, anything. In that environment, tax evasion frequently becomes rationalized as a victimless crime, and political corruption grows in the spaces where no one ever looks. Transparency and open records would go further to prevent tax evasion than any number of law enforcers hunting down those people that attempt it, as would simply dropping those taxes that cost more to collect than they bring in. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_index [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Consumer_Price_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Consumer_Price_I... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_consumption_expenditures_price_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_consumption_expenditu...