I honestly don't understand your question. I don't mean that statement to be argumentative – I really don't understand.
Are you saying the top 1% should pay what I paid in taxes last year? I paid around $100k. I'm not sure why someone making millions to billions a year should only pay $100k. If you assert I should pay the same as high-income individuals, should someone making far less than I am also pay $100k?
To flip it around, if you assert someone making less than me should not pay the same dollar amount as me, then why should someone making many orders of magnitude more than me pay the same dollar amount?
Now then, if I assume you're asserting the mega-rich should pay the same percentage as me, then we both agree that Buffett should pay more. My tax rate was 23% while Buffett's was only 17%.
How ever you slice it, someone's going to have to pay more than someone else. Either the poor need to pay less since they can't afford the flat dollar rate that's established, or the rich need to pay more because the flat percentage rate means they owe more.
Thus, I don't understand your question – it seems logical that, given any taxation system, the rich should pay more. Am I missing something?
I was just trying to point out the fact that taxes is one of the few (if not only thing) that is almost always paid as a percentage of income.
This messes up how people see taxes and how the burden is distributed. And make people say things like Warren Buffent pays less taxes than I do.
You don't buy soldiers, schools, police officers and roads with percentage of incomes. You buy them with dollars, which is why I argue that we should measure the paid tax in dollars and realize that the rich already pay the largest share of it.
Since they don't actually use more government services (they properly use less, but that is another matter) I can't see the problem with reducing the amount paid by the highest income earners.
Although the rich do not necessarily use more of some services (i.e. food stamps), they benefit the most from government's main role: That of protecting property, ensuring safety/stability, and enforcing the law and contracts.
Are you saying the top 1% should pay what I paid in taxes last year? I paid around $100k. I'm not sure why someone making millions to billions a year should only pay $100k. If you assert I should pay the same as high-income individuals, should someone making far less than I am also pay $100k?
To flip it around, if you assert someone making less than me should not pay the same dollar amount as me, then why should someone making many orders of magnitude more than me pay the same dollar amount?
Now then, if I assume you're asserting the mega-rich should pay the same percentage as me, then we both agree that Buffett should pay more. My tax rate was 23% while Buffett's was only 17%.
How ever you slice it, someone's going to have to pay more than someone else. Either the poor need to pay less since they can't afford the flat dollar rate that's established, or the rich need to pay more because the flat percentage rate means they owe more.
Thus, I don't understand your question – it seems logical that, given any taxation system, the rich should pay more. Am I missing something?