But with that said, taxes largely don't go to better society. They go to fund wars, bureaucracies, and into corporate welfare programs - all things which are actively making the world worse. Personally, I equate taxes with theft. It's an issue of principle with me, but I realize not many people go that far. That said, a flat tax would possibly be okay (if not more intrusive), but what would really work is to abolish the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax. But that won't happen because 1) you don't propose a new tax without first doing away with the, otherwise you're bound to end up with both and, 2) what right does the government have to be a part of every single transaction in the country? Personally, I feel we should go back to a volunteer government and no income tax. From a pragmatic POV, it genuinely worked for a long time, and quite frankly, we wouldn't be seeing the amount of corruption we're seeing today.