What if instead of taxing individuals, individuals (society at large) taxed the government? With the taxes from the government enriching Joe Six Packs, benefits could be cut , since people would have the cash to cover unforeseen circumstances. This would shrink the government.
What rate would you have to tax government spending at to get the government to shrink?
Once the government becomes half the economy
why should the private sector/individuals be taxed rather than the government itself?
The way to do this in practicable terms is to have the government pay quarterly dividends to taxpayers, by selling off its assets to private companies. Such assets would include foreign military bases, national forests and coastlines, and the rights to things such as offshore drilling off of Florida. When a private individual cannot pay their taxes they often have to go to the pawn shop and sell something or have their wages garnished. This should be reversed and the government should sell off its own assets instead, and have their income garnished, to impose fiscal austerity, thereby ultimately shrinking the government, while increasing the private sector’s share of the economy.