What??? Govenments aren't looking out for fairness??? If this is the case, why go to the trouble of a having a government, laws, courts, etc.

I agree ckrall that the progressive tax rate is unfair. The argument is that if the tax rate were the same for all, then low income people would not have enough money to support themselves. They just don't make enough money to help fund all of the government services we have. Unfortunately, a "the more you make the more we take" attitude is damaging to everyone. It's a tax on success.

The other thing I hate about the current tax system is that it is way too political. Politicians can use the current system to overtax people, and then offer them "tax-incentives" to reduce what they have to pay (given the taxpayer does whatever it is the politician wants them to do). This amounts to government bribing its citizens. Granted, this is not always a bad thing, but it does leave the door open.

An alternative to the progressive tax that seems to have good "face validity" is a negative income tax. In this scheme, everyone would be given enough money to live on by the govenment (say $10,000), and then would be taxed at a flat rate on all income (e.g. 20%). Thus, if you make $15,000 a year, you would pay $3,000 in taxes, but would get $10,000 from the government for a total net of $22,000 a year. If you make $150,000, you would pay $30,000 in taxes and would also get the $10,000 for a total income of $130,000. This seems fair, and would eliminate the low income problem. We could also do away with most social welfare programs, as well as the costly, convoluted IRS system. It would also close all of the loopholes that exist in the current system.

What do y'all think?