Tweet
Those in the "higher tax bracket" will almost invariably promote the "flat tax" as the only "fair" tax, they then ramble off a couple of ridiculous statistics they claim demonstrate they pay "more then their fair share"
The fact of the matter is completely opposite;
Even with a true progressive tax, and even if we did not consider how easy it is for the wealthy to find tax haven and deductions, they still pay a far LOWER percentage of their wage to "over all" tax then the middle and lower class as we can see as we find demostrated here
Who Pays Taxes?
The short answer is this: you and I pay the taxes that rich and powerful people ought to pay, but don’t.
In the year 2000, at the height of the last economic boom and before the most recent round of tax cuts were enacted, IRS data shows that the richest 400 taxpayers paid 27% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes. On average, these 400 taxpayers each had taxable income of $151 million. All other taxpayers had average taxable income of only $34,600, and yet their tax burden was 40%.
Using that reality, a "true" flat tax would result in a far higher progressive matrix then anything we have or have even considered
I believe the only way we can really facilitate a "true" flat and continue the services necessary for proper governance would look something like this;
Remove personal payments for all government services, for instance sales tax, park fees, tolls, road tax that’s added to gasoline, etc.
However the government would still "bill" for that revenue, the bill from local government will of course go to the federal government, the federal government will then "collect" those fees through a universal and flat income tax
Bing, a "true" flat tax
Now, you get a progressive talking like this and I guarantee the wealthy will stop immediately asking for a flat tax.
5 Comments
People with income in the lowest 50% of the population pay only 3% of the income tax. That’s too little for a government that spends like a drunken sailor. We need to cut expenses to the bone, not dream up new ways to spend (free health care, free college, free housing, etc).
they pay far more then 3 percent, their entire wage is re taxed on everything they buy
and they would pay far more then what you believe if they were payed a living wage, that’s the big problem, companies are allowed to defer their expenses by paying so little you and I have to pay the differance, THAT is not sustainable
we don’t spend “like a drunken sailor”, we spend less on society then most democracies
in addition, “cutting expenses to the bone” means we will lose jobs, remove that buying power and increase the supply of labor, creating even more economic failure
what we do need to do is as follows;
stop funding through tax relaxation companies that export jobs to other countries that allow slave and child labor
insure all industry pays their own bills, this means a living wage, i don’t want to have to pay the difference between what a company pays and what it costs a person to raise their family
now, you bring in living wage law, you remove the ability to export jobs to country’s that allow slave and child labor, all your concerns about funding the social programs that created our middle class in the first place will be addressed with dividends
the problem here is that middle class wealth has been transferred from those who produce the wealth, (the middle class and labor), to those who do not, where once there was about a 40 to one differance between labor income and ceo income that differance has ballooned to to be in the hundreds
THAT’S what’s not sustainable
so, a flat tax would be just fine if it was a true flat tax and not the propaganda flat tax the wealthy propose which shifts the burden even further to the middle class
Nowhere in the world has a flat tax that works. As you point out it is merely propaganda which allows the Right to argue against regular progressive taxation. By even messing with their frame we help them achieve their goal of keeping from making the existing tax code more progressive.
Don’t play in other peoples frames, if you do you have lost before you have stared.
Hi perris, I agree with most of what you said in reply to tinman1967, but on the flat tax I agree with The Dog. I think we have to close loopholes and create a more progressive tax system once again, with three new brackets, maxing out at 50% of gross income. That will produce far more revenue than we are producing now. We need that revenue in order to invest it in the American people.
Do you suppose that the fact that those below median income pay only 3% of the income tax revenues has something to do with their share of the national income?