16% is 16% and 0% is 0%. $400B extracted from 1.5M people is an average of $267K in Federal Income Tax from each person in that group. Government is the only good or service where two people who receive exactly the same item are charged wildly different prices — and do not have the option of declining. How’d you like it if the grocery store demanded to know how much money you make before they set YOUR “special” price for a gallon of milk ?
Even a Sales Tax would not be “fair” to the wealthy, it would just be more fair than what we have.
A 10% sales tax on all retail goods and services would collect more revenue than both individual and corporate income taxes. I’m all for eliminating these income taxes completely. Also eliminate the employee side of the payroll tax and simply have the employer pay 10% on all labor and dividend expenditures to fund any social safety net (replace SS with a poverty-level wage replacement at retirement age, and people can save the 7.65% they were paying in FICA to flesh out their retirement). Together, these two taxes would more than replace the existing Federal Income and Payroll Tax revenues while making the US the cleanest tax environment for businesses to operate in.
PS. The reason the “wealthy” and corporations were able to “pay” high tax rates in the 50’s & 60’s was because they could pass those costs along to consumers in what was essentially a captive market, ie. before the global economy stocked the shelves of WalMart and the auto showrooms. If American producers try to pass along tax increases today, a foreign competitor eats their lunch, and another American business goes overseas or bites the dust. Democrats have always understood the wealthy and corporations would pass along the tax costs and they count on it so they can vilify the “wealthy” and buy votes from the “poor” — they’ve scapegoated the wealthy when they knew all along the impact would really hit the poor and middle classes.
The fact of the matter is that no amount of taxes extracted from anyone is “fair” but if someone chooses to have government of any type, then it must be funded one way or another. If you look at the history of the Fed and the current tax code, then you know that the elites (most wealthy of the “wealthy), are the very people drafting the laws that benefit themselves the most.
I’m not a libertarian, so I’m not going to pretend no one should pay taxes. The fact is that unless (not going to happen, until perhaps the Second COming of Jesus Christ) people are willing to perform their civic duties for free and be true public servants, then government will cost SOMETHING, in monetary terms. So in terms of fairness, I believe that a tax, tariff, call it what you will, on goods can be the ONLY constitutional tax, when apportioned (the only legally obtained tax). Because (at the FEDERAL level only, states have their own constitutions) people are meant to be able to opt out of a tax, by not purchasing the good or service that is taxed.
I think we agree far more than disagree.
Regarding:
“Also eliminate the employee side of the payroll tax and simply have the employer pay 10% on all labor and dividend expenditures to fund any social safety net (replace SS with a poverty-level wage replacement at retirement age, and people can save the 7.65% they were paying in FICA to flesh out their retirement). Together, these two taxes would more than replace the existing Federal Income and Payroll Tax revenues while making the US the cleanest tax environment for businesses to operate in.”
I’m not in favor of any socialist garbage (all social welfare programs included), nor income tax (tax upon labor), whatsoever. I realize that it has somehow been indoctrinated into us that it’s necessary, but I was blessed to have been raised around and by people old enough to remember a time before the entitlement programs. Additionally, the history of the 16th ammendment is replete with shady deals, and unproven powers, which is why we are continually told that paying Federal personal income is “voluntary.”
And I concur with your entire last paragraph.