Hi Billy, On Sep 30, 2011, at 12:20 PM, [email protected] wrote:
> Regressive taxation is so much fun, let's all do it. > > Any idiot knows that 20 % hits the poor much harder than it hits > the ultra rich. If you earn $ 20,000 then subtract $ 4000 and > what is left over is $ 16,000. Did you actually read the article, or just react viscerally? Every flat tax has a floor deduction for that very reason: >> That’s why the flat tax is the fairest tax of all. The combination of a >> single tax rate with a family-size allowance—shielding, say, the first >> $35,000 of income for a family of four—ensures that everyone would pay the >> same marginal tax rate above that level. A family of four with an income of >> $70,000 would pay an average tax rate of about 8.5%, whereas the members of >> the Buffett billionaire club would pay 17%. >> The larger point is the more telling: all the loopholes which the rich can use more than make up for the higher tax rates, hence the Buffet problem. A truly flat tax + base deduction, which applied across all forms of income (including capital gains), would at least be linearly progressive, and a heckuva lot less regressive than what we have now. Assuming we could finesse Social Security taxes as part of this... -- Ernie P. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
