Expenditures require taxation

Hazlitt points out the obvious, which these days is sadly not obvious:

We shall have to say simply that all government expenditures must eventually be paid out of the proceeds of taxation; that inflation itself is merely a form, and a particularly vicious form, of taxation.

An entire generation of Americans (myself included) has grown up without any experience with serious inflation, nor have we seen the effects of marginal tax rates above 50%. Our ignorance isn't going to last long, by the looks of things.