Today is tax day.

According to the Tax Foundation, we collectively hit Tax Freedom Day just six days ago on April 9^th. We as Americans worked 99 days this year to pay off our collective tax burden to all levels of government. That's just enough to cover what was budgeted; if we worked until we paid off what Congress actually spent, we'd be working for Uncle Sam until May 17^th.

What does all our hard work buy us? There are arguably some good, Constitutional things we get from the federal government, like a justice system and a military that is second to none. We also get a ton of social programs that most of us never use and unconstitutional agencies that impose burdensome regulations. On the local level, we get similar things, like police and fire service and road maintenance, but also a host of spending on crazy programs that should never see that light of day. And in all levels of government there is untold waste just in the fact that government, in order to run a program, has to skim money off the top for operating expenses.

Whatever you think of government and the programs that we collectively pay for, there are a growing number of people who are getting something for nothing. According to a report released by the Washington, D.C. based Tax Policy Center last July, 47% of Americans have no federal income tax liability, proving that a very small majority of the people in this country are paying for the rest. Despite what John Stewart says about those who aren't paying any federal taxes, is it any wonder that many Americans are sick and tired of working hard so that 47% don't have to?

A quote attributed to Alexander Tytler, Professor of General History at the University of Edinburgh in 1790, and used by Ronald Reagan in a couple of speeches in the 1960s, explains it the best. "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."

We are only 4% away from that dangerous tipping point where 51% of the people pay no taxes and 49% are stuck with the tab. How much further will this inequity go before Atlas finally decides to shrug?