Most Americans also do not realize that they pay the employer's share of payroll taxes through lower wages. A majority of economists agree that this is what happens.

4. Is there compassion in our tax system? There is the Earned Income Tax Credit, which gives money to those who don't pay taxes. What these Americans don't understand is that they are taxed at an average federal rate of 22% whenever they buy food, medicine, clothes, or any other new item or service.

There are a number of retired folks who would like to work but then they have to pay the payroll tax, which discourages most of them. Extra income may put them over a limit that they can make while receiving Social Security. Taxing Social Security payments is absurd in the first place. We may deduct the interest on our mortgage from the taxes that we've already paid. We may have other deductions from taxes that we've already paid. There are 32 pages of fine print that accompany form 1040EZ. There's compassion for you.

5. Does our tax system change? I wrote a book last year. The latest news then was that our current tax law has 45,562 pages with more than 7 million words. I recently read that our tax code with attendant judicial rulings is now over 55,000 pages. There is a group called "Gucci Gulch" in Washington, D. C. They were given this name because of all of the money that they throw around. They make up 53% of the political action committees (PACS) in Washington. Their sole aim is to gain special tax breaks for their client companies by donating money to legislators' campaign funds.

With that kind of carrot in front of them, lifetime politicians can't ignore the temptation to accept money from these people, and to follow through with changes to the tax code.

6. Our current tax system has poisoned our economy and severely affected workers ability to get ahead. In 2002 we had a record trade deficit of $435 billion. Our 40% corporate tax rate has forced our companies to elevate their prices of goods and services to the point that foreign consumers refuse to purchase our products. Even Americans, who are price conscious, tend to buy lower priced products from countries that have value added tax (VAT) systems. Although we currently have a VAT system where every stage of production is taxed, our companies do not receive a rebate upon exporting their goods or services, and therefore, are not able to lower their prices. Millions of manufacturing jobs have left America. Service jobs, that we once took for granted, are also beginning to leave. The poor have no chance of getting ahead because of our current tax system. Our system has no incentives to save or invest for the poor or middle-class. In 2001 we had a national savings rate of minus one percent.

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