Time for a flat tax

[dmek25]

hate to say it, but you should pay more if you make more. why should i be paying the same flat tax as a millionaire? if you think about it, it really doesn't make sense

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by dmek25

hate to say it, but you should pay more if you make more. why should i be paying the same flat tax as a millionaire? if you think about it, it really doesn't make sense

Why? A millionaire worked for his money (assuming he did work for it). So why should people that worked to earn more be taxed more? Everyone should get taxed the same percentage. We are all supposed to be equal!
You really have your work cut out for you to explain why a millionaire deserves a higher percentage TAKEN from them to support the poor.
ps- I am not even referring to millionaires...but people that make say 100k instead of people that make say 30k. But millionaires still count in my flat tax idea.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by dmek25

hate to say it, but you should pay more if you make more. why should i be paying the same flat tax as a millionaire? if you think about it, it really doesn't make sense

But they do pay more. As it stands right now, the richest 1% of the country pays over 35% of all income taxes.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

But they do pay more. As it stands right now, the richest 1% of the country pays over 35% of all income taxes.

This is pretty consistent with the numbers I've seen.

I know we here at the Warpath like to argue what "should" be the case on a lot of issues, but so often (as with the salary cap) we forget to ground ourselves in what is possible.

We need to tax the rich a greater % than we tax the middle class and the poor, because the nation needs that money. If we went with a flat tax that managed to net the same amount of overall revenue that our current graduated system does, the flat tax rate would represent an absolutely CRIPPLING tax hike for the poor and the middle class. Maybe that seems "fair" to you, but I don't see how that can be considered a good thing when so many middle class people are struggling to afford health insurance as it is. With college education costs rising so fast and with the recent run-up in home prices, the middle class is getting squeezed enough as it is. A flat tax would thrust many of them into poverty so the top 1% could buy more yachts.

I'm a red-blooded Republican, and I still recognize a flat tax makes no sense. The middle class does indeed need to realize that they need to work hard and pull themselves up, and not depend on the government. But the shift of money from the poor to the rich would be huge if we moved to a flat tax.

Besides, this idea would NEVER pass in congress. The likelihood of this ever happening is so remote that it almost renders this thread "retarded."

But please, let's all continue arguing based on ideals instead of reality, and continue to pretend a flat tax would be more fair in our ideal worlds.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by dmek25

hate to say it, but you should pay more if you make more. why should i be paying the same flat tax as a millionaire? if you think about it, it really doesn't make sense

Actually I think logically your argument doesn't make sense. Shouldn't everyone contribute an equal proportion of their income? Why is it fair for someone rich to pay a higher proportion? That seems like faulty logic.

All that being said I am not sure a flat tax would work for us and I am relatively ok with our progressive system as long as politicians keep an eye out for middle America. It is requiring increasingly more money to live comfortably in this country and that is driving up salaries. All of a sudden a lot of people who are considered in the higher tax bracket are the same ones who'd have been no higher than middle-middle class 40 years ago adjusted for inflation. They might have only been in the second tax bracket then. Take the AMT for example. A lot, no a TON of people are going to get hit with this in the coming few years and it will mostly be middle class Americans who all of a sudden are getting bumped into the same tax bracket Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are in. The AMT was meant for the super rich when it was made. Does that even make any sense at all?