"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

-- quote attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler

Study the tax package plans of both of this year's major presidential candidates and it becomes frighteningly clear that our nation is headed down the road described above by the 18th century Scottish philosopher/historian.

But first, take note of President Bush's tax cut programs of 2001 and 2003. Although denounced by critics for favoring the rich, the programs were, in fact, well-laden with tax credits benefiting low- and middle-income families. When all was said and done with the Bush plan, about 33 percent of U.S. households paid no federal income taxes whatever -- sharply up from about 20 percent of households being exempt from the 1950s to the 1990s, according to the Tax Foundation.

Needless to say, people who pay no taxes have no particular interest in cutting them. Indeed, because such people often benefit from the government's wealth transfers, they actually have a special interest in having taxes go up.

This accelerating trend of taking more and more families off the federal tax rolls -- often followed by states removing them from the rolls too -- has been pursued by both political parties.

And they say there's no bipartisanship?

The Tax Foundation has also taken a close look at John McCain's and Barack Obama's proposed tax packages -- and although they differ in several significant respects, they both dramatically boost the proportion of people who don't pay any federal income tax: from Bush's 33 percent to 43 percent under McCain's plan and to 44 percent under Obama's.

It appears that no matter who wins Tuesday's election, our nation will continue in the direction of soon having 50 percent or more of unproductive non-taxpayers leaning on the 50 percent or fewer productive taxpayers. That could get us to the dangerous tipping point Tytler speaks of -- when democracy begins to deteriorate into dictatorship.