Yes folks, we are all being taken to the cleaners by paying no new taxes. This oxymoronic position has evolved over time, in ways we haven't noticed and, when we have noticed, we don't do anything about it, like insisting on a system that balances income with spending. Or maybe displays some concern for individual citizens with services designed to help people live long and prosper.

Swindles are perpetrated by swindlers, the main perps in this caper being unregulated capitalism, inept government, and our willingness to put up with it, not necessarily in that order. Working together, these players have managed to ship millions of jobs overseas, gut our regulatory and environmental protection systems, accelerate a growing gap between haves and have nots, create the largest trade imbalance known to man, flood the country with useless (and sometimes poisonous) junk for sale (that we continue to buy or it wouldn't be here), send the value of the once almighty dollar down the toilet, run up a national debt so huge no one can fathom just how huge it is (humongous isn't even close), literally burn up billions of dollars and thousands of lives in futile foreign adventures (sorry, I don't feel one bit safer than I did five years ago). But we don't pay any new taxes to enjoy all these modern benefits, or do we?

We are most definitely paying for this folly, by forking out lots more of our dough to already existing taxes. Because of the dollar's plunge in value, prices of imported goods continue to rise. Any taxes involved with this stuff that are based on the stuff's price automatically go up as the stuff's price goes up. In places with a percentage sales tax (like Nevada), we just pay more tax when the cost of goods increases. Simple, eh? Don't forget about petroleum, from which a gazillion products flow; gasoline, pharmaceuticals, synthetics for clothing, innumerable useless little plastic toys and other doohickys, single-use drink bottles, etc. Of course, delivering the stuff to places where we can pay more for it isn't free, so we get socked with paying skyrocketing transportation costs.

Here's how Ross Perot would chart it: Falling value of dollar = higher cost for petroleum = higher cost for everything derived therefrom = we pay more taxes. I can't be the only one being pinched by rising prices for all this stuff, topped off with more tax based on the rising prices. It's okay, though, because these aren't new taxes.

Let us not forget the wide world of fees. These puppies keep quietly gnawing away at our wallets at an ever-accelerating rate. Been to a national park lately, or even tried to stop at a turnout in some national forests? Pony up for an expensive entry fee or parking ticket, or risk an even more expensive violation ticket. Keep a stack of greenbacks handy if you go to the Bay Area; bridge tolls are headed for the top of the towers on the Golden Gate, and I don't think motorists are asked about what the tolls should be. Like to travel by air? Be sure to notice all the various fees attached to your plane ticket purchase (gee, I don't recall voting for this), then enjoy being treated like a criminal while waiting for your late flight. To kill time, you can chat or surf the web on your cell phone, all the while racking up various fees for using this wondrous technology (wireless freedom ain't free). Be assured plenty more of this fee business is lurking about, cleverly closeted with governmental and corporate babble lest we actually understand what's going on.

I'm doing my bit by making a conscious effort to try and only buy stuff made in the USA (try it, it's next to impossible). I think first before hopping in the car, looking for the maximum benefit with the fewest miles driven. The most important thing I'm going to do, though, is pay attention to who is doing what (much more important than what they are saying) in government and politics, then going to vote. Self-preservation is a politician's most basic instinct; if enough of us march with pitchforks and torches, they'll listen.