John F. Dedek
Tax a lion and the New Economics
In confessional]Jmctice and private counselling a priest should be able to explain the nature, purpose, and m01¡al
obligations of tax laws.
We used to believe that two things in life are certain. There now seems to be some doubt about death. Thanks to the discovery of DNA and the cracking of the genetic code, some of the new biologists are predicting the elimination of certain and inevitable death. The new economists, on the other hand, have no such good news to report. Like Sisyphus, condemned forever to roll a great stone up a steep mountain, the American taxpayer seems fated to bear indefinitely the ever increasing costs of government. The American taxpayer complains, but he pays. The Inter. nal Revenue Service has estimated that only one percent of the population fails to file an income tax return. And the New York Times has estimated that only four percent of all taxes fixed by law go unpaid. People complain about taxes. They
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