Why Progressive Taxation?

[PoliticalChic]

good exchanges....so let me ask a Q to you both-

based on a luck factor, randomness..fate, should we find or assign a quantitative mechanism to account for this(?), to those that it MAY effect or could have effected, well, how do we account for those whom due to the law of averages would never suffer this random effect negatively?

Further- randomness, luck etc. comes in to flavors...good/ad....so, imho, its a wash.

That is an interesting question, significant because it goes to the very core of liberalism.
FDR attempted to apply the concept of equality to economoics, and that is where he, and they, went astray.

The tried and true strategy for coping with the knowledge that others are a cut above, is to find a way to bring down the more fortunate. Thus, progressive taxation.

Kurt Vonnegut dealt with the premise in a satirical way:

“And so the leveling process grinds insensately on. The Wall Street Journal recently reprinted a Kurt Vonnegut story, which the paper retitled "It Seemed Like Fiction"…Vonnegut saw the trend and envisioned the day when Americans would achieve perfect equality: persons of superior intelligence required to wear mental handicap radios that emit a sharp noise every twenty seconds to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains, persons of superior strength or grace burdened with weights, those of uncommon beauty forced to wear masks.” Hard Truths About the Culture War

Sheesh.

Quoting Vonnegut? And completely out of context too.

Vonnegut was very much against Corporatism. Trying reading some of his books every once in a while.

Read the story....it is fully in context....it's you guys in the 'equality' crowd who are out of context.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Lowering the tax rate and broadening the tax base is the only way to have a system where all people are treated equally under the law.

Well has not worked in the past. But heck..why not give it a whirl.

What do you think would make it work in the next iteration?

It has not been tried before.

We have lowered tax rates and decreased the tax base giving some people a complete pass on income taxes and even giving some people back more than they payed in via idiotic tax credits.

We need a system where everyone pays. And by everyone, i mean everyone.

 

[editec]

The Founders never wanted a federal income tax. The Founders had it set up that States had the power to send their taxes to the Federal government.
It is Liberals who have taken away the power that states had and Liberals who put in the 16th amendment.
We would not be in this mess if we hadn't had the 16th amendment.

The Floundering Fathers never wanted FREE TRADE, either.

Yet this nation is hip deep in aneconomic morass because of our stupid trade policies.

Go figure.

And who is FREE TRADE working for?

The rich and ONLY the rich.

So if your point is that this is not the nation that FF's envisioned?

You are absolutely right.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Lowering the tax rate and broadening the tax base is the only way to have a system where all people are treated equally under the law.

Well has not worked in the past. But heck..why not give it a whirl.

What do you think would make it work in the next iteration?

It has not been tried before.

We have lowered tax rates and decreased the tax base giving some people a complete pass on income taxes and even giving some people back more than they payed in via idiotic tax credits.

We need a system where everyone pays. And by everyone, i mean everyone.

Let's not forget the progressives known as Republicans....

1. The EITC has a sterling Republican heritage. It was first instituted in the 1920s by a Republican Congress at the instigation of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Repealed in 1943, Republican President Gerald Ford revived it in 1975.

a. EITC supporters argued that because the credit would be available only to those with earned income, it would reinforce work incentives and help get people off welfare. By making the credit refundable, it would offset the disincentive effects of higher payroll tax rates, which had risen from 4.8 percent on workers and employers in 1970 to 5.85 percent in 1975.

2. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan supported a big increase in the EITC rate from 10 percent to 14 percent. In 1990, George H.W. Bush supported a further increase.

3. Despite the exploding cost of the EITC, Republicans in Congress created another tax credit in the 1997 tax bill. The child credit was intended to make it easier for mothers to stay at home and raise their children, rather than work outside the home. Republicans and the Earned Income Tax Credit - Bruce Bartlett - Townhall Conservative

4. “…the earned income tax credit ("EITC") that was enacted by Gerald Ford and then re-enacted and expanded in 1986 by... could it be, don't tell me, say it ain't so!... Ronald Reagan.” Paul Abrams: Reagan the Redistributor: Check Out the Earned Income Tax Credit

5. “…a child care tax deduction included in the immense Internal Revenue Code of 1954…” Child Care Subsidies in the United States: Government Funding to Families (2010)

 

[Skull Pilot]

Well has not worked in the past. But heck..why not give it a whirl.

What do you think would make it work in the next iteration?

It has not been tried before.

We have lowered tax rates and decreased the tax base giving some people a complete pass on income taxes and even giving some people back more than they payed in via idiotic tax credits.

We need a system where everyone pays. And by everyone, i mean everyone.

Let's not forget the progressives known as Republicans....

1. The EITC has a sterling Republican heritage. It was first instituted in the 1920s by a Republican Congress at the instigation of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Repealed in 1943, Republican President Gerald Ford revived it in 1975.

a. EITC supporters argued that because the credit would be available only to those with earned income, it would reinforce work incentives and help get people off welfare. By making the credit refundable, it would offset the disincentive effects of higher payroll tax rates, which had risen from 4.8 percent on workers and employers in 1970 to 5.85 percent in 1975.

2. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan supported a big increase in the EITC rate from 10 percent to 14 percent. In 1990, George H.W. Bush supported a further increase.

3. Despite the exploding cost of the EITC, Republicans in Congress created another tax credit in the 1997 tax bill. The child credit was intended to make it easier for mothers to stay at home and raise their children, rather than work outside the home. Republicans and the Earned Income Tax Credit - Bruce Bartlett - Townhall Conservative

4. “…the earned income tax credit ("EITC") that was enacted by Gerald Ford and then re-enacted and expanded in 1986 by... could it be, don't tell me, say it ain't so!... Ronald Reagan.” Paul Abrams: Reagan the Redistributor: Check Out the Earned Income Tax Credit

5. “…a child care tax deduction included in the immense Internal Revenue Code of 1954…” Child Care Subsidies in the United States: Government Funding to Families (2010)

I hope you're not assuming I am a repugnantcan

 

[PoliticalChic]

It has not been tried before.

We have lowered tax rates and decreased the tax base giving some people a complete pass on income taxes and even giving some people back more than they payed in via idiotic tax credits.

We need a system where everyone pays. And by everyone, i mean everyone.

Let's not forget the progressives known as Republicans....

1. The EITC has a sterling Republican heritage. It was first instituted in the 1920s by a Republican Congress at the instigation of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Repealed in 1943, Republican President Gerald Ford revived it in 1975.

a. EITC supporters argued that because the credit would be available only to those with earned income, it would reinforce work incentives and help get people off welfare. By making the credit refundable, it would offset the disincentive effects of higher payroll tax rates, which had risen from 4.8 percent on workers and employers in 1970 to 5.85 percent in 1975.

2. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan supported a big increase in the EITC rate from 10 percent to 14 percent. In 1990, George H.W. Bush supported a further increase.

3. Despite the exploding cost of the EITC, Republicans in Congress created another tax credit in the 1997 tax bill. The child credit was intended to make it easier for mothers to stay at home and raise their children, rather than work outside the home. Republicans and the Earned Income Tax Credit - Bruce Bartlett - Townhall Conservative

4. “…the earned income tax credit ("EITC") that was enacted by Gerald Ford and then re-enacted and expanded in 1986 by... could it be, don't tell me, say it ain't so!... Ronald Reagan.” Paul Abrams: Reagan the Redistributor: Check Out the Earned Income Tax Credit

5. “…a child care tax deduction included in the immense Internal Revenue Code of 1954…” Child Care Subsidies in the United States: Government Funding to Families (2010)

I hope you're not assuming I am a repugnantcan

I've been here for a while, Skull...

No, just 'spreading the wealth.'

 

[Quantum Windbag]

The Founders never wanted a federal income tax. The Founders had it set up that States had the power to send their taxes to the Federal government.
It is Liberals who have taken away the power that states had and Liberals who put in the 16th amendment.
We would not be in this mess if we hadn't had the 16th amendment.

The Floundering Fathers never wanted FREE TRADE, either.

Yet this nation is hip deep in aneconomic morass because of our stupid trade policies.

Go figure.

And who is FREE TRADE working for?

The rich and ONLY the rich.

So if your point is that this is not the nation that FF's envisioned?

You are absolutely right.

The Founding Fathers never wanted free trade?

Thomas Jefferson - "The exercise of a free trade with all parts of the world [is] possessed by [a people] as of natural right."

One of the reasons the Revolutionary War was fought was to ensure free trade. I will admit that some of the founders immediately flip flopped their position to embrace protectionism. Free trade is beneficial to our country as a whole, and does more good than bad. Only a few idiots like, Patric Buchanan, are capable of ignoring the facts and claiming that protectionism has ever been beneficial.