Submitted by Dean, Mar 29, 2007 11:19

Doug, I'm not sure what you were paying attention to, but it wasn't to 5th grade math.

Under a flat tax, the more you make, the tax PERCENTAGE stays the same, but the tax DOLLARS grow indefinitely.

So the millionaire in your example showing a millions dollars of taxable income pays (at say a 20% rate) $200,000, while your fat cat with the billion dollar income pays $200,000,000. That's right, 200 million. 1000 times the tax dollars of the millionaire. No loopholes. No social engineering. No income redistribution. No creeping-socialism. Oh, yeah, and a whole lot less lobbyists because they can't get their pet projects into the tax code.

Under the current scheme, your reward Doug for working harder and raising your income is to raise your tax PERCENTAGE as well, which accelerates the DOLLARS you pay. How hard will you work Doug when the tax percentage of the next thousand dollars you make is say, 50% or 70%, or 100%?? How much additional work would you do for free Doug?

Take a look at Eastern Europe, where they will admit they tried socialism and communism, and where they will admit they failed miserably. They're now tripping over themselves to implement flat tax plans, because the plans just flat-out work.

But yes, flat taxes do put a big dent in government control over our lives. Sorry about that.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.