What would happen if there were no taxes in America? (no satire please)

No taxes means no police, no fire, no prisons, no military, no food or drug quality enforcement, no building inspections, no roads, no sewer service, it would be chaos.

We'd be back to the good old days that Republicans love so much.

Private firefighter companies beating each other up for the privilege of charging people to put out their fires.

Some people would hire private security, the rest would have to make do with nothing.

Masses of illiterate people because only a handful would have the money to pay for education. Children would work in factories instead of course.

Toll roads everywhere.

Thankfully, we have a little bit of socialism in this country because if we didn't life would sure suck.

Anarchy. Without taxes there is no government or law enforcement and total chaos would ensue!

Thousands of services that Americans depend on would stop working. No police, not ATC, no Army, no road repairs, no Medicare/Medicaid, most schools gone, no INS, much worse weather service, GPS gradually fails...

The only way it would work is that you would get a bill for legitimate government duties. Like the gas bill or water bill.

We'd be a much more Free nation, and people would be forced to help one another out. People would have to come together to help build the roads, schools, ect.

The good thing is that there would be no waste, no wars, no army and a lot less corruption but there would also be no infrastructure, no social or public services, no schools, in other words none of the services that are financed by tax payers money

no protection from terrorist organizations and mostly inefficient ways of doing task. (lots of civilian stuff (like internet) actually developed from military funding)

There would be more jobs and more wealth and happiness for those who are willing and able to take those jobs but inevitably the people right at the bottom of the pile would suffer.

Complete Chaos

Most of these answers are wrong. The government has the ability to print money, so it can always appropriate funds for services. This idea that no taxes equals anarchy is scare mongering by those in governemnt who want to keep the power of divisiveness upon us. I think it would be good to eliminate IRS and allow people to keep the fruit of their labor. And by printing money, the government will in effect tax people through inflation. All people who hold dollars will be proportionately taxed by the devaluation effected on the currency.