At least flat tax is fair... and the rich won't be able to hire special accountants to find tax loopholes to evaded taxes.
As for the poor not making money, they won't be taxed at all!
Of course we won't be able to abolish the ridiculous tax codes anymore... surely accountant lobbyists won't have that. All these inefficient bureaucracy at least create jobs for lots of folks...
Flat tax comes out of a rich person's luxury spending, while it comes out of a poor (and possibly middle class) person's survival spending. A flat tax may be "fair" in a numbers sense, but in the real world, it very much would not be "fair". It'd put a greater burden on middle and lower income earners than it would on the rich.
You might be surprised how little taxes the actual wealthy pay. A flat tax - while still not fair - would probably result in the ultra-wealthy actually paying more than they do now. #sadtruth
While they have certain loopholes sure, the fact is they are so rich, that they still pay way more into the system than the lower and middle classes do. The calculations I've seen floating around have been like 20-30% as a flat tax fee. Currently the lower and middle classes pay no where near that. I don't see how it's realistic to expect people making $5-45k to give up 25% of their income and be in good shape. Progressive tax systems work. It's just the loopholes that need to be closed.
So the rich contribute to 20~30% of national spending while owning 40~60% of all capital?
Sounds like great business
acket.
Note quite:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20...roup_-_CBO.png
Top 1% pay almost 25% of Income Tax receipts.
Income taxes as a whole make up about 40% of Federal receipts.
The top 1% own about 35-40% of the nation's wealth according to reports.
I pretty much always post this when this topic comes up, heh
First decile in the U.S. owns around 60% of capital from most scholar reports I've seen, FFS you're third in highest inequality of OECD countries, just behind Russia and Mexico. And at the bottom when compared to nations with a similar Human Development Index.
Note however that I'm saying owning capital, not just having income. Like Jason said, apples and milk are not much use once eaten.
acket.
Also, the top 1% generally don't receive much "income" technically. They receive stocks/bonds, interest, etc... So, they pay very little "income" tax.Originally Posted by Jason
This x1billion.
I question whether a genuine democracy can exist with such a huge wealth gap given the role of money in politics.
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