[lbo-talk] The flat tax and income inequality

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Fri Nov 16 09:43:39 PST 2007


Wojtek writes:


> The Europeans tend to see taxes and social programs as an
> 'economy of scale' - pooling resources to provide universal
> benefit at a lower per-unit rate.

But less-so every day, no?

* German rail strike hits commuters and business * French strikers prefer cold picket lines to talks * German rail strike causes chaos for second day * Pound falls against dollar again * French transport workers block trains as strike enters third day * Unions to extend French transport strike


> Homo Americanuses, by contrast, see taxation as burden rather
> than investment, and social programs as a handout to the poor
> at the expense of everyone else.

Yeah, what was your crack about being on welfare the other day?


> Progressive taxation is really a lame of way of income redistribution

If that's your goal, maybe. But if your goal is to find a reasonably fair way of paying for whatever it is you've decided is important to you, it's better than all of the other ways of doing it. I think you've confused the decisions about what to pay for with the mechanism for paying for it.

In the mean time, a progressive tax (like the income taxes in the US) is still the best way to pay for even the most awful of things: progressive taxes means that the richer you are, the more you'll pay for this wretched war. And I suppose, that's as it should be.

/jordan



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