What is the purpose for income tax? - Page 4

lookout123 · 03-20-2009, 05:14 PM

This has been bugging me for a little while. The argument over who should pay what percentage of their income to the government goes back and forth. I hear that the wealthy should pay more. I hear the working class should get more breaks. I hear each person should pay his fair share.Most people have only arbitrary answers when asked to define wealthy, working class, and fair share. The strawmen get dragged out. Warren Buffett pays less tax than his secretary is a popular if misleading one. What bothers me is that people don't seem to stop and think why those taxes are collected or how we came to accept the numbers we currently use.

My understanding is that income taxes are collected from the people of the United States to fund the activities of the United States government. It would seem to me that the idea of having a budget that is anything other than balanced is just plain idiotic. Our government is a non-profit organization so it should collect only what it needs to run the programs and possibly a little extra for a rainy day fund. When receipts go down either expenses have to go down or income tax rates must increase. That is just basic common sense, but we don't give it much consideration.

It seems that we have come to accept a budgetary process that is completely disjointed. The government spends whatever it wants in ever increasing amounts without any real consideration of where the money comes from. Programs are started and empires are expanded as the political figures do their dance with each side giving misleading soundbytes to garner support. Then to actually fund the budget the government establishes arbitrary tax rates that aren't based on anything other than gaining votes. When is the last time someone actually divided the total expenses and divided that number up to match up against available taxpayers?

I hear that our goal is fairness in the tax system. Is taking a disproportionately large percentage of money from a disproportionately small number of people really fair or does it just feel good? Does it really make sense to have a progressive tax system that comes packed with loopholes to allow the people we say we want to pay more to actually pay less? Are the tax tables really designed to offset government expenses or merely to take money from the rich and give it to the poor? It doesn't really succeed at either.

The question in all of this is simply, are taxes a means to fund necessary functions of government or are they just a way to play Robin Hood?

03-20-2009, 05:14 PM	#1
lookout123 changed his status to single Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Right behind you. No, the other side. Posts: 10,308	What is the purpose for income tax? This has been bugging me for a little while. The argument over who should pay what percentage of their income to the government goes back and forth. I hear that the wealthy should pay more. I hear the working class should get more breaks. I hear each person should pay his fair share.Most people have only arbitrary answers when asked to define wealthy, working class, and fair share. The strawmen get dragged out. Warren Buffett pays less tax than his secretary is a popular if misleading one. What bothers me is that people don't seem to stop and think why those taxes are collected or how we came to accept the numbers we currently use. My understanding is that income taxes are collected from the people of the United States to fund the activities of the United States government. It would seem to me that the idea of having a budget that is anything other than balanced is just plain idiotic. Our government is a non-profit organization so it should collect only what it needs to run the programs and possibly a little extra for a rainy day fund. When receipts go down either expenses have to go down or income tax rates must increase. That is just basic common sense, but we don't give it much consideration. It seems that we have come to accept a budgetary process that is completely disjointed. The government spends whatever it wants in ever increasing amounts without any real consideration of where the money comes from. Programs are started and empires are expanded as the political figures do their dance with each side giving misleading soundbytes to garner support. Then to actually fund the budget the government establishes arbitrary tax rates that aren't based on anything other than gaining votes. When is the last time someone actually divided the total expenses and divided that number up to match up against available taxpayers? I hear that our goal is fairness in the tax system. Is taking a disproportionately large percentage of money from a disproportionately small number of people really fair or does it just feel good? Does it really make sense to have a progressive tax system that comes packed with loopholes to allow the people we say we want to pay more to actually pay less? Are the tax tables really designed to offset government expenses or merely to take money from the rich and give it to the poor? It doesn't really succeed at either. The question in all of this is simply, are taxes a means to fund necessary functions of government or are they just a way to play Robin Hood? __________________ Getting knocked down is no sin, it's not getting back up that's the sin Last edited by lookout123; 03-20-2009 at 05:21 PM.

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