More wasteful government spending...

The Internet

Satellite GPS technology

Microprocessors

Interstate Highway System

California Central Valley Irrigation System (responsible for producing about half the nation's produce and $30 Billion in agricultural productivity annually)

Jet engines

National Parks

Transcontinental Railway

As millions protested taxes with their teabags yesterday, I couldn't help but wonder what our nation would be like without the innovations listed above. All of these innovations, not to mention a highly educated populace, a very low overall crime rate, and countless other conditions that make economic prosperity possible, all exist because the government spent tax dollars on creating them.

It's interesting that another topic dominating the news lately has been the piracy problem off the coast of Somalia. Now, there's a perfect example of what a nation is like without an active government. Do you think the pirates pay tax on their million-dollar bounties? Of course not. No government is taking their hard-earned money away from them. Of course, no government is providing them with an infrastructure to build a functioning economy with that money. No government is educating the population to engage in productive activity rather than theft. No government is protecting the work of productive people from those who prefer to steal. The Tea Bag protesters clearly don't want a government that does any of those things. Maybe the protesters should simply move to Somalia.

Let me propose a small tax increase to buy all these whiners passage to Somalia. Then the rest of us (and the millions of immigrants who want to come in, pay our relatively low taxes, and enjoy the countless benefits of living in the US) can go about the business of paying taxes and working WITH government to produce the conditions for private enterprise to continue producing economic prosperity.