The number of taxing bodies to which any particular individual may be subject varies from a few to twenty-five or thirty. Farmers as a rule are subject to only four or five such bodies, while a dweller in a large city, with its parks, hospitals, sewerage system, high schools, city colleges, or technical schools, and with numerous other agencies for the betterment of social conditions, finds a much greater number of official boards which have authority to tax his property. Our problem will be much simplified, however, if we confine our attention to (1) national taxes, (2) state taxes, and (3) local taxes. The national government possesses practically unlimited power in the matter of taxation, and, strange as it may appear, needs, under normal conditions, the least revenue. The states have much less power to lay taxes, though their needs in times of peace are greater than those of the national government. Finally, local needs - city, school, county, township - are the greatest of all; yet they must be supplied by taxing bodies hedged about with constitutional or statute restrictions. In most states, for example, the taxing power of each school board is limited to a small per cent of the total wealth in the school district. This limitation may be imposed by constitutional provision or by legislative enactment. Similar limitations are very generally placed on city, county, township, road, bridge, park, and other taxes. We should be warned at this point that the emphasis we may lay on the restrictions on local taxing boards is in no way indicative that they are undesirable, or even detrimental to the best interests of society.