The simple case for progressive taxation
Despite the fact that Bush's foreign policy is what most outraged his opposition this election year, it's likely that he's going to be unable to engage in more adventurism in his second term. There just plain aren't enough troops to invade Syria or Iran or France. And Bush has burned too many bridges around the world to have a real coalition with other countries for that.
Instead, Bush will turn his plundering attentions to the domestic front, as seems pretty likely by the statements of him and his administration. The three things they will go after will be Social Security, federal progressive income taxation, and conservative activist judges.
I want to post about all of these, but I'll start off with the simple case for progressive taxation (that is, marginal tax rates that increase as one's income increases). There's a more complicated case, which I'll get to in another post, that argues more generally for taxation.
The case is simple: the lower your income is, the greater percentage of your income you pay for food and housing. So a flat tax or a sales tax bites people more the lower their income is. A 17% tax rate, let's say, is a lot more burdensome on a family earning $10,000 a year than a family earning $100,000 a year. So higher rates for higher incomes -- or, if you prefer, lower rates for lower incomes -- are appropriate and just.
Instead, Bush will turn his plundering attentions to the domestic front, as seems pretty likely by the statements of him and his administration. The three things they will go after will be Social Security, federal progressive income taxation, and conservative activist judges.
I want to post about all of these, but I'll start off with the simple case for progressive taxation (that is, marginal tax rates that increase as one's income increases). There's a more complicated case, which I'll get to in another post, that argues more generally for taxation.
The case is simple: the lower your income is, the greater percentage of your income you pay for food and housing. So a flat tax or a sales tax bites people more the lower their income is. A 17% tax rate, let's say, is a lot more burdensome on a family earning $10,000 a year than a family earning $100,000 a year. So higher rates for higher incomes -- or, if you prefer, lower rates for lower incomes -- are appropriate and just.
Labels: taxes
posted by honestpartisan | 5:16 PM
1 Comments:
The companion point to that is that is that the lower your income, the greater a percentage you spend on domestic consumer goods and services, thereby contributing to the health and growth of the domestic economy. :)
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