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Flip back through the pages of history: during the few hundred years that the Roman Empire was collapsing, the tax collectors became so violent and generally oderous that in some cases Romans living on the geographic fringes of the Empire welcomed invaders because a change of government looked good to them.

I expect the same to happen in the USA. Local governments and the federal government need money to operate on. In the best case scenario, two things would happen: drastically reducing government spending on the military and not-so-essential social services, and, slightly raising taxes. Neither of these reasonable things will get done.



There were also related exactions like forcing people to continue the carrer of their father, because of course that type of job was heavily taxed.

This is also thought to be the start of European feudalism. As things broke down and Rome's ability to enforce its will waned, becoming the vassal of a local boss was a way to escape this mess.




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