I am not as much anti-tax as I am anti-spend - especially anti-wasteful spending at any government level. However, wasteful spending and overspending inevitably lead to higher taxes, which I do oppose.

One of the unfortunate results of taxation is the suppression of improvement. My case in point involves a friend who recently bought a new home and property. He has been thinking of adding an in-ground pool. Definitely, this is what is called a property improvement.

However, I learned not too long ago that he has decided against that improvement project. As you are no doubt already guessing, he is abandoning his plan not because of the cost of installing the pool, but because of the cost of the additional property tax he will face.

Like many other property owners, no doubt, government, via their taxing authority, suppresses improvement. It should come as no surprise to anyone in my area why so many property owners have allowed their homes and other property to fall into disrepair.

I have recently been corresponding with a former economics professor who has written on more than one occasion how surprised his European guests are when they learn the rate of American property taxes. They are especially taken aback when they look at the state of many American properties in comparison to the state of their own.

This is a very real and sad testimony to the damaging impact that taxation imposes on American citizens.