Way OT: Taxes

[dice]

Both a flat tax, and a national sales tax make more sense than the mess we have now. Look them up

national sales tax is hugely regressive

[dice]

Which ever side of the fence you are politically, the inherent unfairness of a significantly regressive income tax is that the many get to decide how to spend the resources of a few (consider that the top 5% of U.S. earners pay 61% of all federal income tax).

first of all, your #s are misleading, as the top 5% pay 40% of TOTAL taxes (payroll taxes included, which are as big a source of gov. income as income tax). and you conveniently leave out the fact that that the top 5% earns more than 30% of the nation's income. i suppose that part's perfectly fair, right?

as for your little analogy, i'll start by saying i don't know of too many poor people who eat for free. and it's essentially advocating trickle down economics, which has shown little evidence of being effective

[RoseveltChapman]

Goal was to isolate this to income tax and nothing stated above refuted the unfairness of the income tax system. If you can state that the income tax is fair, that I submit that every time you go out with friends, the guys that make the most $$ should pay the lion share of dinner, despite what each individual orders for dinner. Guarantee that no one at the table would think that is fair. So please, if you attack my argument, stick to the income tax.

"payroll taxes included, which are as big a source of gov. income as income tax"

However, I quote the above as Social Security was never intended as a tax. SS was and is not supposed to be wealth distribution. That is why there is an income tax limit on it and it never ever would have been approved as anything but a forced savings vehicle.

And I'm sorry with the regressive vs. progressive mistake.