Tax Man Cometh … 3 comments
Today would be Tax Day for us Americans if it fell on yesterday or tomorrow, but since it fell on a Sunday this year, it’s only Tax Day in spirit.
But the idea of the complexity of doing taxes for Tax Day got me thinking about how complicated our lives have become. I’m sure the founders of our country were not intending for our lives to turn out this way. Taxes seem to get in the way of our happiness and liberty for all, so on Tax Day I’ve thought of a number of ways to simplify our lives.
No more deductions, loopholes, earned income credits, or refunds. Let’s just pay ten percent of our annual income. Rich, middle, and poor alike. Every paycheck ten percent autmagically gets deducted and goes to the government. The government does wonderful things with that money – universal healthcare, education for all, environmental protection … No paperwork at the end of the fiscal year!
If someone is self employed, total the income, subtract the investment, pay ten percent of what’s left.
But this also got me thinking about other societal and life simplifying ideas too.
I am very much against talk of God in the classroom and I am very much for the seperation of Church and State. But given that every religion on the planet has some sort of basic rule set (Ten Commandments for Christians, Five Precepts for Buddhists, and Muslims have Islamic law, shamanic concepts) and they are all pretty much the same rule set, it makes sense to create a few rules for society to live by. Not religious rules. Just basic rules that we all agree to, ones that harbor respect for people and property and the planet. So many kids, in this country anyway, are not taught any rules at all. To put everyone on an equal level would be a first step in becoming good people. And that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Becoming and being good people?
These rules don’t even need to be mandated. They can just spread like a fire. People can just choose to start teaching their children.
It would just make life so much simpler. Wouldn’t it?
Anyone want to come live in my world?
3 Responses to 'Tax Man Cometh …'
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Well, doh.
If we were enlightened enough to create a flat tax, wouldn’t we be enlightened enough to stop warring around?
Yes, I think when I wrote this post I was only thinking about having the money to fund healthcare, education, art projects, science projects, and make sure that everyone is housed and fed.
That’s enough, isn’t it?
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Maybe it’s enough. Depends on what happens after you institute a system that can pay for everyone’s needs. You could run into the law of unintended consequences.
Anyway, the flat tax is usually considered to be anti-poor because it’s effectively regressive. It’s also difficult because you start getting into definitions of what’s income and what’s not, and if you can’t figure out a way to define that clearly and non-loophole-ly, you wind up having to file a 1040 anyway, only now you have a regressive tax on top of that.
Ten percent of the average person’s income isn’t enough to pay for everything that our society needs taxes to pay for, plus wars.
More’s the pity.
And you can’t afford to pay my tax rate – it’d wipe you out.
So indexed income taxes really aren’t optional, despite how attractive the idea is.
Now if you can figure out a way to get rid of wars, we can talk…