Quote:
Originally posted by jcyuhn
Of course, this covers only the income tax, and it is highly progressive. In contrast, the social security payroll tax is highly regressive. Low wage earners pay proportionately more than higher earners, and the great majority of Americans pay more in SS taxes than they do in income taxes.
Other taxes, such as excise taxes and tariffs also hit low income earners harder because they are tied to consumption, and low income individuals consume a greater proportion of their income than to high income earners.
So I do agree with your ranting and raving about the income tax, but also look at it in the larger picture of the overall tax burden in this country. Scary as it is, we in the U.S. have relatively modest tax burdens compared to much of the world. Of course, our economy is also the envy of the world, and there is no small connection between those two facts.
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The word "progressive" in your statement is the very definition of the problem!!! Taxes should NOT be based on a progressive, income-dependent scale...This system penalizes you for success and achievement, while rewarding laziness and failure with a "lower tax bracket"! A step in the right direction would be a "flat tax", where EVERYONE, regardless of income, pays the SAME PERCENTAGE, PERIOD. This is the only way to ensure fairness in an income-based tax system, and to be sure everyone "carries their own weight".
http://www.ncpa.org/pi/taxes/tax7.html
Of course the ideal would be NO income tax, and instituting a national retail sales tax.
http://www.salestax.org/
This system would eliminate unfairness, mountains of paperwork and filing expense, increase privacy, greatly increase the average person's take-home pay, greatly reduce "cheating" and "loopholes", reduce the tax and paperwork burden on small business owners, and solve countless other problems. That way, if "low income earners" want to reduce their tax burden, then they can choose to consume less. "High income earners" will inevitably consume, so there would always be adequate tax money flowing into the system...Of course that would also be dependent on our government reeling in its ridiculous spending habits. It would also not reward those who will not work, as the current system does. It only makes sense. Therefore, I will not hold my breath for it to happen.
Mike