It is scary how many people don't realize they pay taxes because they "get money back from the government" at the end of the year.  They don't realize they loan their money to the government interest free and then get a small portion back.  They don't think about all of the "little" taxes that add up to a lot.  They don't think about the cost to individuals, businesses, and the government to administer the thousands of different little taxes and how much money everyone (except the paper pushers) would benefit to not having that expense.

If people saw how much they were taxed with every little purchase, they'd complain more about the government waste instead of complaining about not getting enough freebies.  We could shrink government if everyone had to pay in and everyone saw how much of their hard earned money was stolen from the government.

Also, an income tax punishes producers causing some people to stop producing or to leave the country for a more friendly environment reducing production.  A sales tax punishes consumers and encourages everyone to produce more and save more and to fix instead dispose of things.  This makes the economy more efficient.  Anything you can produce for yourself enables you to avoid taxes.

In reality the income tax is used more to spy on citizens and to manipulate spending patterns of citizens, than it is to fund government functions (as one of the Fed Chairman said openly).  By giving the government details of your spending, you tell the government things they don't need to know.  By all of the tax "write offs", they manipulate how people spend their money.  Both are evil.