"THE PRICE OF CIVILIZED SOCIETY" IS $10,298 PER PERSON

The Price of Civilized Society" in 1999 is $10,298 for each man, woman, and child in the United States, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation. The report's title is derived from Oliver Wendell Holmes' famous definition of taxes.

The tax burden as a portion of individual earnings has increased dramatically this century, especially the Federal burden. Earlier in the century, Federal taxes were less than half of state and local taxes ($116 to $243, in 1910--all figures 1999 dollars). Now, the proportion is reversed ($7,026 to $3,273). Since just 1981, the Federal tax burden has increased 45%.

"Americans will spend more money per capita in 1999 on taxes than on food ($2,693), clothing ($1,404), and shelter ($5,833) combined," according to Patrick Fleenor, senior economist at the Tax Foundation and author of the new report titled "The Price of Civilized Society."

Federal taxes alone ($7,026) make up significantly more than any other major expense, such as health and medical care ($3,829), transportation ($2,568), and recreation ($1,922). Taxes extracted from Americans' paychecks for individual income taxes and social insurance taxes are the two largest sources of government revenue.

In 1999, states with the highest total per capita tax burden are Connecticut ($16,139), New Jersey ($13,785), and New York ($13,420). Not coincidentally, they also possess the highest state and local tax burdens: New York ($4,914), Connecticut ($4,744), and New Jersey ($4,253). The lowest state and local tax burdens can be found in Wyoming ($1,755), Alaska ($1,989), and North Dakota ($2,223).

The Tax Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has monitored fiscal policy at the Federal, state, and local levels since 1937. For more complete statistics from the report, see http://www.taxfoundation.org

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