I finally got around to filing my income tax return tonight. I really didn’t want to think about taxes, but looking at a nice summary of how much money I earned last year, and how much of that went to taxes, it’s hard to avoid.
I have one major problem with our current tax system, and really the functioning of nearly every federal program. The problem is that the whole system is predicated on the idea that it is o.k. to take something from someone for the benefit of someone else. I reject this premise on moral grounds. I was taught when I was very young that taking something from someone else, just because you wanted it, is wrong. If I were the person who had had something taken from me, I would be upset. But I would be just as upset to find out that what I had something that was taken from someone else.
In another forum several years ago I started working out an analogy that might explain my position on the broken tax system. It could use some work, but here’s what I came up with:
During high school you work hard, doing all your homework, studying even when you don’t have homework, and taking advanced or accelerated classes whenever possible. Your hard work earns you nearly all A’s.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have a slacker friend that never studies or does his homework, and is more often sleeping in class rather than taking notes. After 4 years he has accumulated mostly D’s and F’s.
Just before graduation day the school administration announces a new program to “level the playing field” and equalize the disparity between those who were born with more intelligence and those who were less advantaged and not born as smart. You both Graduate with a report card showing straight C’s. Is this fair or just?
If you were the straight A student, would you accept such an arrangement without protest? Would you continue to work as hard knowing that whatever you do you are going to graduate with a C average? What if you were the D and F student, would you feel right getting credit for something you didn’t earn?
Think about the Teacher… In the first place they get to reward the better students with better grades, and penalize the lazy one with lower grades.
What recoures does a Teacher have to motivate the class if at the onset eveyone knows they will all Get a “C”?
Now, to alter your suggestion by a little,,, You are a student and worked hard for a 3.0 gpa,, the other stuent is a consistent 0.0 student. Then a few of your points and a few of your fellow B student’s points are given to the F student to give him a “passing” grade. It only brings down your score a little and the cumulitive effect on the slacker is that he is rewarded for slacking while you are punished for your efforts. However,, the “A” students points were left alone because of some loophole where those in the upper 5% dont have to donate points to the “pool”.
That would be more like the tax system we endure now… in my eyes.
I see the “loopholes” for the top 5% as correcting wrongs already introduced by the broken system.
The Tax Foundation released a report of who paid what taxes in 2004. The top 5% of income earners paid 57.13% of all the income taxes collected, even though they only earned 33.45% of all the income earned that year. This tells me that the top 5% are contributing to the pool, and their contribution is disproportionately large compared to their income.
Returning to the analogy, these people still have points deducted from them, but they keep taking classes in summer school to make up for the points that were taken from them.
yes, I would agree if I felt taxes should be based on how much you earn…
I know government needs money to pay for certain services and the citizens under that government should pay for those services, and recieve the benefits from paying. I would not even venture a guess at the best way to do that, but it seems unfair for ANYONE to pay for more than the value of the benefits they recieve, but it also does not make sense to get benefits without paying.
I don’t know what the best system is, but I think the Fair Tax is a step in the right direction. It allows people to reap the full benefit of their labors, and only taxes those who choose to spend their money on consumer goods, essentially making it a voluntary tax. It’s far from perfect though, it still doesn’t address the issue of using government services, without contributing to the federal coffers.
I know some teachers and it is extremely hard to fail a student these days, and they are often made to pass all their students. I believe in a Flat Tax on the Federal level for sales tax. The IRS and USPS are obsolete and do not make economical sense anymore.It creates a level playing field without redistribution of others earnings.
With a wife who stays at home to rasie our kids I’m one of the F students in your anaology. It doesn’t feel good to take more from the system than I put into it. But what are my options? I suppose I could just write a check to a rich friend.
I have several complaints about the faxtax however I agree that it’s better than the broken system we have now.