ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the amount of money collected in taxes and how the costs of politics have been rising in the postwar era. Responsibility for spending money is much more congenial to politicians than is responsibility for collecting taxes. The spending side of the budget is examined in order to identify the public benefits financed by the costs of taxation. The budget combines the benefits and costs of government. The growth in spending on social welfare programmes has been a principal cause of the growth in taxation, and in tax effort. Taxation accounts for the great bulk of total government revenue. The greater area between 'inflation-adjusted’ line and the line tracing actual tax revenue emphasizes the extent to which taxation has risen by much more than inflation. Inflation directly accounts for less than half the total increase in tax revenue in the postwar era.
