I agree that government protects both life and property. I have not supported a flat tax on wealth. For one thing it is too difficult to measure. If it could be, I would favor a declining wealth tax.
Just because we can't measure accurately, that doesn't prevent us from recognizing that the wealthy pay a much smaller % of wealth
Just because we can't measure accurately, that doesn't prevent us from recognizing that the wealthy pay a much smaller % of wealth
You may imangine that, however the problem is the wealthy actually do pay a larger % in regard to wealth than the poor do as indicated by the BLM numbers using value of home as a proxy for wealth:
For evidence of this I refer you again to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics File you pointed out to me in your search for distribution of taxes by income for the year 2000,
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ce/standard/2000/income.txt
and once again I bring your attention to the case of the less than $5,000, average income of $1,942 with an expenditure of $17,946 owning a $40,008 home.
| Income | less than $5,000 |
5,000 to 9,999 |
10,000 to 14,999 |
15,000 to 19,999 |
20,000 to 29,999 |
30,000 to 39,999 |
40,000 to 49,999 |
50,000 to 59,999 |
greater than 60,000 |
|
| Gross Income |
1,942 | 7,192 | 12,245 | 17,070 | 23,666 | 32,720 | 41,498 | 54,432 | 102,578 | |
| Expenditure | 17,946 | 15,703 | 21,199 | 24,331 | 29,852 | 35,609 | 42,323 | 49,245 | 75,964 | |
| Personal Taxes |
39 | 447 | 71 | 248 | 861 | 1,702 | 2,703 | 4,128 | 10,008 | |
| OwnedHome Value |
$40,008 | $38,335 | $51,671 | $60,981 | $60,417 | $68,825 | 80,089 | 102,153 | 185,009 | |
| Tax as % of Home value |
0.097% | 1.1% | 0.14% | 0.4% | 1.4% | 2.45% | 3.3% | 4.0% | 5.4% |
The Highlited row contains my calculations of (100*PersonalTax/HomeValue) based on the BLM numeric values published for those values.
Once again, you provide only your personal opinion of what you want to believe rather than demonstrate it for us from any fundamental basis.
Your assertions are mere repetition of your own dogmatic belief, in spite of strong and clear evidence in counter to what you want us to accept on the basis of your mere words. Opinions no matter how forcefully repeatedly one my try to express them remain only opinions. Such repetition ultimately becomes the refuge of the demogogue pushing a personal agenda, not the rational person seeking facts and truth on which to base conclusions to base action in.