What exactly is "fair"? There are lots of ways we could tax people, that some or other people would declare to be fair.
Sure, we could tax all sales at 20%, or 45%. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
We could tax everyone a flat amount - $10k or something. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
We could tax everyone a flat percentage - 15%, say. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
We could tax everyone such that we all have the same income - $50k perhaps. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
The idea that higher taxes "punish" the rich doesn't make sense to me. We have the money! Of course that's where taxes should come from. What, we're going to shake down the people making $12 /hour? They don't have any money.
Here is my thinking: we should decide, as a society, what is essential. Defense, roads, fire departments, schools, etc. And then we figure out the best tax system to pay for that. We should aim for that system to:
1) Gather as much money as we need to pay for the essentials.
2) Cost as little to administer as possible.
3) Discourage harmful societal behaviour and/or encourage beneficial societal behaviour (generally, the more you tax something, the less of that thing you get).
4) Impact people's lives as little as possible. This is where progressive taxation wins - if you tax a poor person, that's money they really, really need. They were going to spend that on essentials. If you tax a rich person, their quality of life isn't meaningfully impacted. If Jeff Bezos has to pay more taxes, that impacts his day-to-day life exactly not at all.
5) Be conceived from behind the 'veil of ignorance', as much as possible. (This is where the 'fairness' argument comes in)
So as a society we are saying it’s ok to tax the wealthy, but we also give people the opportunity to become wealthy and encourage it but then once you make it bad, time for punishment via taxes? What exactly did Bezos do that requires him to pay more taxes? He didn’t “get a small loan”, he earned his and now your saying people who have no desire in life to be anything more than a store clerk deserve some of his money. Can they afford it? Sure. Is it fair, absolutely not.
I think framing it as a punishment is a bit disingenuous. The idea is not to punish rich people, the idea is to change how the tax burden is distributed. I would turn the question around and ask why we as a society are intent on punishing the middle class with the tax burden?
It seems pretty spot on to me. Your rich, this is evil, and now you gotta pay.
Because the middle class is the one asking to increase it with the constant addition of social programs that benefit them and those in lower classes the most? Unless you want to get into some twisted math on how much resources they use by breathing.
Sure, we could tax all sales at 20%, or 45%. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
We could tax everyone a flat amount - $10k or something. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
We could tax everyone a flat percentage - 15%, say. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
We could tax everyone such that we all have the same income - $50k perhaps. That would be fair. Can you see any problems?
The idea that higher taxes "punish" the rich doesn't make sense to me. We have the money! Of course that's where taxes should come from. What, we're going to shake down the people making $12 /hour? They don't have any money.
Here is my thinking: we should decide, as a society, what is essential. Defense, roads, fire departments, schools, etc. And then we figure out the best tax system to pay for that. We should aim for that system to:
1) Gather as much money as we need to pay for the essentials.
2) Cost as little to administer as possible.
3) Discourage harmful societal behaviour and/or encourage beneficial societal behaviour (generally, the more you tax something, the less of that thing you get).
4) Impact people's lives as little as possible. This is where progressive taxation wins - if you tax a poor person, that's money they really, really need. They were going to spend that on essentials. If you tax a rich person, their quality of life isn't meaningfully impacted. If Jeff Bezos has to pay more taxes, that impacts his day-to-day life exactly not at all.
5) Be conceived from behind the 'veil of ignorance', as much as possible. (This is where the 'fairness' argument comes in)