Maybe it is the fact that I never got persecuted by the IRS that has me thinking that I am not going to put a major comparison between human rights violations and prickly bureaucrats who screw people financially.

I may have fiddled my income numbers a few times but I never made a grandstand issue of not wanting pay any taxes. Even according to the people who are against the income tax, the actual tax rates would not go down, just get calculated and administered differently. IE, just about everything made in China would go up in price due to import taxes, but in a national splitup scenario, where the "free zone" has no income tax, but more costly imported goods, how much of the population do you think would practice the patriotism of living in the "free zone" yet traveling to an income tax zone with MFN status for China to buy consumer goods?