“A government may levy whatever taxes it believes are appropriate.”
Dr Hall, isn’t that like having the fox watch the hen house?
Further you wrote:
We assume that the wealthy and influential will plunder everything then use their power to get themselves bailed out. Corporate CEOs squander their stockholders’ equity and get rewarded with huge golden parachutes — and then get nominated (and sometimes elected) to public office.
That’s the way many of us feel about government’s handling of our tax dollars. Power corrupts, whether in industry or gov’t. The main difference is that in industry, there are alternatives – you can choose to avoid a company or maybe use the competition. But in gov’t there is no where to turn from bad policy. In addition, gov’t policies can go on indefinitely. You have no choice, short of running to another state or country.