Comment Re:um (Score 1) 578
The problem with taxes is that everybody likes the benefits but nobody wants to pay 'em.
To expand: It's very hard to agree on what is a truly fair way of assigning the tax burden. You can start from any number of plausible-sounding positions (everyone gets equal benefits therefore everyone should contribute equally, everyone should pay based on what they earn, everyone should pay based on what they can afford...) and wind up with wildly different conclusions. You can argue that any given demographic is paying too much tax, or not enough.
Given that (a) the US is a democracy, (b) you can pretty much rely on individuals to fight their corner to pay less tax, and (c) there are fewer rich people but they have more influence, it's likely that the current broad approach is close to optimal. Won't seem that way to any single person (who'll almost always feel that they're paying too much to make up for some other guys not paying enough), but society as a whole settles on a balance.
Cheers,
Mat.
To expand: It's very hard to agree on what is a truly fair way of assigning the tax burden. You can start from any number of plausible-sounding positions (everyone gets equal benefits therefore everyone should contribute equally, everyone should pay based on what they earn, everyone should pay based on what they can afford...) and wind up with wildly different conclusions. You can argue that any given demographic is paying too much tax, or not enough.
Given that (a) the US is a democracy, (b) you can pretty much rely on individuals to fight their corner to pay less tax, and (c) there are fewer rich people but they have more influence, it's likely that the current broad approach is close to optimal. Won't seem that way to any single person (who'll almost always feel that they're paying too much to make up for some other guys not paying enough), but society as a whole settles on a balance.
Cheers,
Mat.
