I Like an Income Tax...

Is taxation fair? Is it a good idea?

How about an income tax?

Government, federal government, HAS to run at some level, right? In fact, the exact level at which it was designed to run is laid out in Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution. You can read it at the end of this thought.

So, government needs funding. No one disputes that. There are universal benefits from government. Almost no one disputes that.

It is clear, reading Section 8, that Congress has power to impose taxes on Americans. (What is not granted is power to redistribute tax revenue to poorer Americans.)

In America today income is taxed under a “progressive” scheme wherein wealthier people pay the largest share of their income, and poorer people actually receive a portion of the tax revenue and pay no income tax.

Some call this scheme “fair” because those who “can afford it” pay to help the “underprivileged” among us. In my opinion this progressive income tax actually serves to further disenfranchise the poor. Those who pay no taxes have no vested interest in their government. They have no OWNERSHIP stake in what government does, and hence are less prone to be concerned by its actions. In fact, it is only the exception to human nature that would reject an increased hand-out from a benevolent and tyrannical government.

Picture the state in which we now live. A very small minority of the American population, what is called by the media “top earners”, pay a disproportionately large part of the US’ income tax revenue. In fact, the Associated Press reported that the top 50% of earners in America pay more than 96% of the taxes!

So what portion of the population is apathetic when higher taxes on the “rich” are suggested? I most Americans are not apathetic, some of them certainly feel a degree of animosity toward the “rich” and want to see taxes increased on them. After all, a tax increase has no negative effect (some could argue that it has a net positive effect) on the “poor” and almost no detriment to the “middle-class”.

Now, imagine a society in which every wage earner was invested by virtue of the fact that he or she paid an absolute tax of 10% of every dollar earned. Currently, a worker who earns the national minimum wage would make slightly more than $14,000 per year. That worker would be responsible to pay $1,400 in taxes to support the government programs that are designed ostensibly to benefit all Americans. Of course, the “wealthy” person who earned $150,000 per year would pay somewhere upwards of $21,000 in taxes.

What do you think the national reaction would be if a politician suggested that it was necessary to increase taxes? I think it’s safe to say that objection to the new taxes would be almost universal.

So, I think that an income tax could actually be a GOOD thing for our country if it were applied fairly and equally.

Here’s the text of Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution. These are the ONLY powers enumerated and allowed to the Congress by the Constitution. By virtue of the 9th and 10th Amendments, all other powers are reserved to individuals or to the states as their citizens allow.

One note about the portion of the first paragraph below: “provide for the … general welfare” means that an act of congress must be designed and intended to benefit the populace in general and not to benefit or harm individuals specifically.

Anyway, Section 8 reads:

The Congress shall have power To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;—And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.