You have, you just may have noticed it before. Look at the breakdown of taxes in a given municipality towards schools/fire dept/police/etc... This sometimes changes amounts of less than $20 per person, per year, yet draws major attention when it comes time for voting season. Because when you put that $20-40 together with millions of other people it totals a big number. You saw it when there were laws being discussed about raising minimum wage a few cents, then again later when certain states raised to over $10 (which for some, was less than $1/hr/person). So many times have you seen it (or you aren't living on this planet, or just not interested in taxes/finances/money/etc...).