$278b in taxes!! I'm angry as hell !

Words escape me, my rage and shock are preventing me from writing anything rational, so below I have reproduced the full text of this article to understand what a terrible price we pay for us to be a "social democracy".

AUSTRALIANS paid $278.5 billion in tax to governments in 2004-05, a jump of 8.3 per cent from the previous year, figures show.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics found the amount of tax paid by Australians increased 8.3 per cent over 2003-04, or more than $21 billion.

The Federal Government leads the way, with total taxes collected by Canberra up 9.3 per cent to $229 billion. Taxes on income increased 11.8 per cent to $163 billion, while indirect taxes (including the GST which Canberra argues is a state tax) were up 3.8 per cent to $65 billion.
The states and territories collected $41.6 billion over the year, an increase of 3.1 per cent, while local governments collected $8.1 billion (up 6.2 per cent).

The Federal Government's average tax take a person increased 7.1 per cent to $13,781. Among the states and territories, New South Wales continues to lead the way, taking an average of $2645 a person, an increase of 1.7 per cent. Western Australia continues to have the second highest state tax take at an average of $2582 a person (up 3 per cent), followed by Victoria ($2520), South Australia ($2387), Queensland ($2179), Tasmania ($1817) and the Northern Territory ($1784).

Only one government, that of the ACT, actually reduced the amount of tax collected a person. It fell 5.8 per cent to an average of $2193 a person. Income tax now accounts for more than 40 per cent of all the tax collected in Australia, the first time it has exceeded 40 per cent since 2000/01. Company taxes account for another 17.8 per cent of all taxes (up from 16.3 per cent), followed by the GST (12.7 per cent), excise and levies (8.2 per cent), property taxes (4.5 per cent), taxes on financial and capital transactions (4.2 per cent) and payroll taxes (4.2 per cent). Gambling taxes collected $4.3 billion across the nation, while insurance taxes collected another $3.5 billion.