Cato Ad Infinito

[Phil Gasper]

>     The devil is in the details.  I tried to click on the site for this
>study's methodology and got the error message: "This contains
>information Web-TV cannot use."  Could this be Bill Gates at work?
>     My point, and it was confirmed by the study cited, is that income
>taxes are not necessarily progressive.  There's the Social Security
>payroll tax, for instance.  Pennsylvania's state income tax must be
>flat-- it would take a constitutional amendment to change it-- and there
>are no deductions.  (The rate is around 2%)  The City of Philadelphia
>has a wage tax of about 5%.  That's 15% coming off the top in
>non-progressive taxes.
>     On the other hand, substantial portions of my spending escape sales
>taxes.  40% of my net income goes toward rent.  Add in food, clothing,
>mass transit, internet access, sidewalk sales, medical expenses, and
>lottery tickets and I end up paying sales taxes (7%) on less than half
>of what I spend.  (And don't forget toilet paper.  Making toilet paper
>taxable in New Jersey may have made the difference in the Florio/Whitman
>race.)  Much less.  I only pay sales taxes on books, prepared food,
>purchases at the state store, bar tabs, and rare consumer items-- a CD
>now and then and I bought a new TV this year.
>     So, what do these surveyers have poor people spending their money
>on?  Do the surveyers account for tax avoidance (legal and illegal)?
>And the study itself concluded that whether income taxes were
>progressive or regressive was very important.
>     I'm perfectly willing to accept that other states' residents have
>different experiences.                      James in Philly

James:

You apparently know even less about taxes than you do about criminal
justice and the case of Mumia.

Pennyslvania is actually one of the ten most regressive tax states in the
country, and it is also in the top ten for the highest taxes on the poor.
In Pennsylvania the poorest 20% of the population pay 13.3% of their income
in state and local taxes, the middle 60% pay 10.2% and the top 20% pay only
6.1%. This is precisely because the state has a flat-rate, rather than a
progressive, income tax. Sales and property taxes kick in to do the rest.

Of course income taxes are not "necessarily" progressive, but they can be
instituted in a progressive way. Neither are sales taxes "necessarily"
regressive --it just so happens that in fact they are, because the poor
spend a higher proportion of their income on taxed goods and services.

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels call for "A heavy progressive
or graduated income tax"-a demand which has not gone out of date.

Phil Gasper
Chair, Dept. of Philosophy & Humanities
College of Notre Dame
Belmont, CA 94002
650-508-3732