"Of course, one reason is simply that taxes represent taking money from people’s pockets, and people obviously don’t have that money to spend on other things," says Dr. Walden, an economist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. "But more fundamentally there are two real differing philosophies about taxes that are often in conflict.

"One side emphasizes efficiency of the tax system," he adds. "This philosophy says we should only have a tax system whose main goal is to raise revenue, and you want to raise revenue in an efficient way -- the cheapest way you can -- and you don’t want the tax system to get in the way of economic growth. You don’t want it to deter people from earning more and doing better.

"The other philosophy emphasizes equity in the tax system. The folks here will emphasize the impact of the tax code on incomes of different citizens. They will be concerned about how tax rates may vary by different income classes of people. They may also be willing to use the tax system to achieve certain social ends -– for example, if you want to encourage home buying you give a tax deduction for homeowners.

"So you get inevitable conflicts and debates between these two philosophies whenever you are talking about taxes," he says.