"why didn't you just start with that?"
I thought I had cleared that up in my earlier posts, and had made it more clear with my re-iteration. I re-re-iterate:
The fact that I hastily used the term "rate" rather than "burden" in my post should have no bearing on the substance of this discussion. In my personal experience, during my productive life, my tax burden in this country has risen--enormously--while level of services I personally receive have dropped precipitously.
Again, public accounts will have to be responsive to prevailing conditions. They will have to get the money from somewhere...not only are SS and Medicare screwed, there is an ever-increasing debt burden. To some extent these can be offset with increases in GDP, which is why we are furiously after gas and oil on our own land--but only to some extent.
The shortfall will come from...me. A guy with some money. Not enough to essentially run a business protecting my assets, but enough to live on and grow if current conditions prevail...which they won't.
To me this is not debatable. It is my opinion, buttressed by my own personal experience during my productive lifetime. "Guarantees" made by the government regarding "retirement accounts", including SS, IRA, 401k, etc., can be, and are, varied unilaterally, and those variances will not be in my favor.
Again, it is a matter of control--the potential benefit of accounts predicated on governmental regulation is a lowered tax burden at some point; the price to be paid for that benefit is a lack of control. This is one reason why the very rich don't touch those types of accounts, although, yes, all "bank accounts" as they are simply understood, are regulated to some extent.
"(now if you're claiming that - without a rise in income - your tax burden has only ever risen during your working life, then i will again say that you are making that up unless your working life began after the w bush tax cuts around 2005."
Yes, my income has risen. BUT I still claim what you quoted above, when all sources of taxation are taken into account:
Federal Income
State Income
City
County
Special Taxing Districts-soil, water, facilities, etc.
Gasoline
Capital Gains
Corporate
School
etc.
plus user fees
administrative fees (hugely up)
user fees
permits & registrations
health care
etc.
The lastest blow for me is that I am self-insured, yet I now have to purchase insurance from someone else. I am, and have been, comfortably self-insured for years. If you know how I can get out from under the new mandate by proving this self-insurance to the satisfaction of the government, do tell...but it represents, to me personally, yet another gigantic, ever-increasing tax, to add to all the others.