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9th Engineer · 08-31-2007, 03:11 PM

Even a progressive tax system unequalizes a population if you really think about it. Let's use Joe Average as an example. He and his wife make a total of $47k annually, which would put them in the second tax bracket at 15%. To simplify lets just say their tax contribution is 47000*0.15=$7050 every year. His highschool buddy Harry Surgeon is making $600k, putting him in the highest bracket of 35%. Harry is sending off 600000*0.35=$210000 a year to Uncle Sam, that's about 30x more then Joe. Now enter Fred CEO, he's raking in a comfortable $2.7M off his firm, and is of course also in the highest bracket. That's (2.7*10^6)*0.35=$945000 in cash for our boys in Washington, almost a full 135x more then Joe. Without a stepped system those numbers would of course still be high, but only ~12.5x and 57.5x respectively. It exacerbates the problem of unequal government because certain classes of people are worth the equivalent of hundreds of their fellow citizens. While I'm certainly not claiming that doing away with tiered systems would solve this, it's still a big part of why certain interests are paid attention to immediately while others languish for years.

08-31-2007, 03:11 PM	#423
9th Engineer Bioengineer and aspiring lawer Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 872	Even a progressive tax system unequalizes a population if you really think about it. Let's use Joe Average as an example. He and his wife make a total of $47k annually, which would put them in the second tax bracket at 15%. To simplify lets just say their tax contribution is 470000.15=$7050 every year. His highschool buddy Harry Surgeon is making $600k, putting him in the highest bracket of 35%. Harry is sending off 6000000.35=$210000 a year to Uncle Sam, that's about 30x more then Joe. Now enter Fred CEO, he's raking in a comfortable $2.7M off his firm, and is of course also in the highest bracket. That's (2.710^6)0.35=$945000 in cash for our boys in Washington, almost a full 135x more then Joe. Without a stepped system those numbers would of course still be high, but only ~12.5x and 57.5x respectively. It exacerbates the problem of unequal government because certain classes of people are worth the equivalent of hundreds of their fellow citizens. While I'm certainly not claiming that doing away with tiered systems would solve this, it's still a big part of why certain interests are paid attention to immediately while others languish for years. __________________ The most valuable renewable resource is stupidity.