Reply #6: That's not so...we have one of the lowest tax burdens among OECD nations...

[rfranklin]

The U.S. Tax Burden Is Low Relative to Other OECD Countries
Sonya Hoo, Eric Toder

The United States raises significantly lower tax revenues as a percentage of gross domestic product than do most other countries in the OECD. In 2003 taxes in the United States, including all levels of government, amounted to 25.6 percent of GDP, down from 29.6 percent of GDP in 2000.1 Other countries in the G7 raised 33.9 percent of GDP, while non-G7 OECD countries raised 34.7 percent. Within the OECD, Mexico raised the least tax revenues at 19 percent and Sweden the most at 50.6 percent. (The recovery of corporate profits and the stock market since 2003 subsequently boosted U.S. tax revenues to 26.8 percent of GDP in the first three quarters of calendar year 2005.)

http://taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1000976

The fact that we spend as much as the rest of the world combined on wars and military toys is why we feel poor. Combine that with insanely low taxes of the wealthiest members of society and no wage protection for the low end workers and you end up with the mess that we have in this country.