THE INCOME TAX’S UNHAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY. “Critics warned a century ago that the new tax would ultimately be ruinous. The income tax ‘will tax the honest and allow the dishonest to escape,’ the New York Times wrote. The Times warned that in any emergency the tax rates would be sure to rise and that ‘its unpopularity will grow with its life.’……..Today, the heavy burden of taxes is clearly a major drag on our country’s economy. The U.S. now has the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world. In 1913, the total number of pages in the tax code was only 400. Today, it’s 73,954.”