drifterlee opened this issue on Feb 14, 2008 · 56 posts
XENOPHONZ posted Fri, 15 February 2008 at 4:48 PM
Sure -- I'd love to see a flat tax implemented. Russia's done it -- in fact, many other countries have gone that way, too. So on that point we agree 100%.
But the reasons for the monstrosity of the current tax system are inverted from what you've said: it isn't "the rich" who are responsible for this mess, they merely take advantage of it as they can. But the underlying responsibility for the all-devouring tax code lies squarely with the Congress and with the government bureaucracies. They derive a LOT of their power over people via the current tax system: because it allows them to reward groups of people that they like (re: people that they wish to buy off votes/contributions from) -- and it allows them to punish groups of people that they don't like, or that they regard as non-factors in their political calculations. It's a big help, politically speaking, to be able to confiscate money from a politically unpopular group (smokers, "the rich", big corporations) in order to dole the confiscated money back out to those whom you want to vote for you.
The vast majority of taxes are paid by people who are in the top 25% of income earners. There aren't nearly as many rich people as there are those who aren't rich -- or who depend upon government largess in order to meet their personal needs.
It's a simple formula: the more people who are dependent upon the government, then the more power & control that those in government have over people's lives. Plus the more support that the government power structure can expect to receive from its dependents.
The current tax system in the US won't change easily, or soon. It supports the power structure in Washington far too strongly for any of the members of the power structure to even consider doing something so ridiculous as switching over to a simple flat tax. Right now, the advantages to the power elite are simply too great for them to loosen their hold on our labor that way.
It'll likely take something on the order of an absolute economic catastrophe to change the minds of Congress on the subject -- sort of like what happened in Russia.
So no -- most of "the rich" would be perfectly happy to see the current tax system replaced by something that made sense. But most of the sort of politicians who are currently running the show don't want to lose one of their greatest & best means of continuing to run the show.