re: #379 lostlakehiker

Rick Barber is one angry man. Get him some xanax or something, stat.

That said, it’s fair enough to deride the name “progressive”. A double-edged word in this context, its literal meaning is that the more you make, the higher a fraction of that you pay in taxes. The intended connotation is that such escalating rates constitute progress, and that therefore more is better.

Principled conservative opposition to the federal income tax? Virtually nonexistent. The American Enterprise Institute argues that the FIT should apply, at least in token quantities, to almost all workers. They object to the current trend to entirely exempt from the FIT a large fraction, and in their view, eventually a majority, of the population. The thinking is that if a voting majority pays no taxes, that majority will see no reason not to raise rates on the minority who do pay.

The existing and growing income inequality in the U.S. is unfortunate, but redistribution is not a cure. Better schools for all would help. The fraction of citizens who are walled off from serious money by their lack of basic skills would be smaller. A reduced rate of illegal immigration would also help to limit the growth of income inequality in two ways: first, most illegal immigrants do lack basic skills such as command of English. Second, because of the first factor, they can only compete for low-wage jobs, and this competition drives down wages in low-skill occupations.

Finally, laws that break up the pattern in which top executives can make bets of the heads-I-win tails-the-taxpayer-loses variety would be nice. Let bonuses depend on the long term success of the executive’s company, for instance.

The trouble with 90% rates is that the rich include many extremely productive individuals. All productive work serves not only the earner but also the customer. The transaction wouldn’t occur otherwise. If high earners can’t keep any meaningful fraction of their earnings, they won’t exert themselves, and our own share of their production never comes into being. Everybody loses when tax rates go too high.

Right now, they’re not insanely high. The system works, sort of. The IRS gets a B+. Gentlemen, disband your armies.

The one nit I have to pick with this is that those who don’t pay federal income tax, are still paying numerous taxes of several other kinds so its not like half of American or a large part of it isn’t doing some part to shoulder the cost of our federal government….