Dartblog

With any luck it will come much sooner next year. Today marks the first day of the calendar year, that the money the average American makes is his or her own. This is to say that all income, every day since January 1, has been going to fund government spending. Tax Freedom Day occurred a few days ago, the point at which citizens have devoted their quota to the tax system. The reason the two days are separate is because Friedman Day marks the symbolic end of income to government spending and Tax Freedom Day the end of income to taxes; because as we all know, government today is spending far more than they are “earning.” For a description of the two holidays, see here.

Deroy Murdock at the National Review Online and Human Events takes a look at these holidays and casts a justifiably critical eye on the seemingly endless growth of government spending.

On Monday, Americans finally will start working for themselves rather than for their government masters. This milestone arrives two days later than in 2007, clearly proving that the era of big government is back with a vengeance. May 19 is Friedman Day, when the Great Barrington, Massachusetts-based American Institute for Economic Research calculates that citizens finally will have toiled long enough to fund local, state, and federal spending….

The late, great Nobel-laureate economist Dr. Milton Friedman would be pleased to see Americans devoting less wealth to tax payments. However, the man for whom Friedman Day is named would be saddened, but probably not surprised, to see Americans dedicating more blood, sweat, and tears to finance government spending.

“I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible,” Friedman told writer John Hawkins in September 2003. “I believe the big problem is not taxes,” Friedman continued. “The big problem is spending. The question is, ‘How do you hold down government spending?’ Government spending now amounts to close to 40 percent of national income, not counting indirect spending through regulation and the like. If you include that, you get up to roughly half. The real danger we face is that number will creep up and up and up. The only effective way I think to hold it down, is to hold down the amount of income the government has. The way to do that is to cut taxes.”

Murdock’s full column can be read here.