One of the more interesting tidbits I've stumbled across: http://books.google.com/books?id=vw7ZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA21&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1tmkvZIRyYubg4d-zg

One of the more interesting tidbits I've stumbled across: http://books.google.com/books?id=vw7ZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA21&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1tmkvZIRyYubg4d-zgkblfFvXf8g&ci=123%2C285%2C793%2C726&edge=0 http://books.google.com/books?id=vw7ZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA21&#3... Source: United States Income Tax Law Simplified for Businessmen | Ferdinand Adolphus Wyman | 1895 In other words, the Income Tax -- as it was originally intended -- was for the wealthy only. The book was published in 1895, and the income threshold in the 1890's was $4000. $4000 in 1895 dollars would be a rather large amount of money today. So what happened?