For an extreme example a homeless drunk spending most of their income on alcohol is paying a 40% tax for the privilege. Benefits are of course a separate issue, but few want to calculate benefits from free roads, Medicare, police, or Social Security as government welfare.
At the other end Bill Gates actual lifetime income is vastly higher than his taxable income due to the charitable tax deduction and capitals gains being deferred until sale.
1) Plenty of people complain about progressive taxation and advocate for a flat tax.
2) Progressive tax is not arbitrary. As income increases, a higher % of spending is discretionary. Nearly all of the working class’ income goes to basic necessities. That is part of the rationale.
Ultimately the problem is that the tax code is altogether too complex. I filed by hand up until a couple of years ago when I had to start accounting for things like capital gains and dividends from stock sales, and at that point it became too difficult and I started paying for TurboTax. At the end of the day they solve a problem that is entirely manufactured by government.
The main area where the system seems to be gamed from a software standpoint is that the federal government provides software if your income is below a certain threshold. More than that and you’re on your own. _That_ has lobbying written all over it.
A flat income tax as the sole tax would eliminate tax filing complexity. It would also eliminate the inequality in the tax code (sales tax is a larger income tax on lower incomes, tax credits disproportionally benefit people in lower cost of living areas, etc.). A flat income tax is equal in that everyone pays the same rate, and fair in that the more money a person earns the more they pay.
You're thinking of "Raca" from Matthew, it wouldn't make sense for him to call it based on that verse though since it's not a pleasant word. Jesus specifically says not to call your brother Raca. Why would he call his language that...
This makes sense to me. Sometimes it’s not even about more money but existence entirely. Seeing as that VisiCalc was _the Spreadsheet_ up until Lotus came along and ate their lunch, it’s easy to see that sometimes features and other external forces may have more of an impact than the raw popularity of a product in the end.
I sometimes wonder if bringing Scott Forestall back in would fix things, even temporarily. He wasn’t necessarily pleasant but then again, neither was Steve.
