Taxes suck, but we all have to chip it to "do our part", right? We should all not feel so bad about paying "our fair share", right? Ba-humbug, I say. The "paying your fair share" mentality is the childish mentality of dependence, not the adult mentality of personal (self)-responsibility.

When the first income tax was introduced to fund the Civil War, the tax levied on people making $600 to $10,000 per year was 3%. People making over $10,000 a year were charged a higher rate. It was sufficient to fund the military for an extremely expensive war.

Now, I'm not going to discuss the multitude of ways that the Government could (and should) do without that 3% forced tax (there is every reason to believe that they can make the whole thing voluntary and it will work just fine). I just want to illustrate the fact that supporting the basic functions of the Government and the military really doesn't cost that much.

What really costs money is one person or a group of people believing that they are entitled to other people's money. What really costs money is the position that one person or a group of people are supposed to be financially responsible for another person or group of people.

Of course, the only thing it accomplishes is a HUGE national debt while turning the nation into a bunch of whiny children demanding "free" health care, a "free" education for their kids, "free" public roads and parks, as well as an abusive parent (the Government) to tell them what they can and cannot eat and what drugs they can and cannot ingest (the FDA), what they can and cannot invest in-along with what constitutes a good investment for them-(the SEC), when they can retire and how much they will get (the Social Security Administration), and a whole host of other "services" that promise to take care of them from cradle to grave. With that attitude, Americans never really have to grow up and become real adults, do they?

Well, I think it's time Americans grew up and took responsibility for their own life.

A huge part of the financial problem in this country can be solved by people taking responsibility for their financial situation. If more people would own the problems they got themselves into, then they could start to work on legitimate ways to correct their mistakes and turn their life around for the better instead of relying on Big Daddy Government (BDG) to take care of them in their old age.

By hiring a financial adviser to help you create a principled financial plan-by learning how to be responsible for your own financial life-you can completely side-step all of the financial problems that many Americans are facing today.

Think about it for a moment...if everyone took responsibility for their retirement, would a Social Security Tax be necessary? Would a Social Security Administration be necessary? Nope. Social Security only encourages people to be reckless with their own money and take a limited-superficial-interest in their retirement because if all else fails, then Social Security is their as a "safety net" to back them up. Without Social Security, people would be forced to take responsibility for their financial success or failure. They would have to actually learn sound principles of financial planning. They would, of course, be better off for it...but it would take work and effort to learn financial planning.

The same is true of health care and health insurance. Get the Government out of health insurance and health care and force people to take responsibility for their own insurance. Would you need Medicaid and Medicare? Nope. What would you do with all of the poor people who can't afford insurance? For those people who are truly poor and who truly cannot afford insurance (and there are less than you might think), they will have to rely on what they relied on prior to Medicaid (which worked out fine for them): private charity.

All of this might sound a bit harsh, but sometimes I think Americans need a little "tough love". Lots of people complain about taxes. They look for ways to reduce their tax burden. They "cheer" tax cuts and "boo" tax increases. The real solution to this whole problem of onerous taxation is to eliminate them altogether. But, the only way to eliminate them is for Americans to grow up and take responsibility for their own lives.

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