Taxes

A well known, but never told too-often, story about the harm of taxes is the following:

Man A can fix a car in 1 hour. However, it takes him 4 hours to paint a room.
Man B can paint a room 1 hour, but it takes him 4 hours to fix a car.

A logical consequence of this difference in skills is that Man A hires Man B to paint his room, and that Man B hires Man A to fix his car. Then both save 3 hours of work, which they then use on whatever else they want (for example work more or simply relax).

But what happens if we throw in elements like licence-fees, taxes on work and materials and other of that kind? One consequence could be that it will take Man A too many hours to work in order to afford the price of hireing Man B. Man A will have to pay taxes of his own earnings and then pay Man B which again has to pay taxes of his own earnings. In Denmark (which has high taxes on everything which changes hands or is done at all) it takes the average man 5 hours to work for 1 hour of hired help.

What does that translate into then? It translates into a system where people spend a lot of time doing things they are not good at, and thereby doing less of the things they are good at.

Who benefits from that?