Buying beer is something you do. Being in a certain income bracket is something you are.
So, when I recently chose to not work for a while, significantly lowering my income bracket, did I change who I was, or what I did?
“when I recently chose to not work for a while, significantly lowering my income bracket, did I change who I was, or what I did?”
Both, actually. But the government is only interested in what you became, which was someone with a lower income level. You are nit taxed for how much you work, you are taxed based on his much you made. That’s why we call it an income tax instead of a work tax.
Is this really that hard to get? Why don’t you tell me why we càll income taxes direct (or poll, head, capitation) and how excise taxes are different. Then maybe we could get back to equal protection.
I just realized something. You look at it as everyone’s together at the starting line at the beginning of the year. Then we go make money and end up in whatever bracket we deserve. And that’s “equality of opportunity,” because it was up to us and we knew the consequences going in?
That is, well, weird, but in any case inaccurate. The way it works is you are classified according to how much you’ve made at the end of the period. Your income decides your status. It is you that is taxed, not the act of making money. That’s why it is a direct tax and not an excise, or whatever.