"Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands." Aside from this being false (not ev

"Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands." Aside from this being false (not everyone arranges his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible), Hand's observation is rather strikingly like another, more famous about equality before the law: "The law in its infinite majesty forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread". It's true that the law itself is pretty nuts, but things would be a lot better if people (natural as well as merely legal) didn't regard taxes as a punitive burden to be lessened by any means. Functioning and funded governments are good!