Right?
If you do the math you'll see that this is both absolutely fair and a very conservative argument. In fact this is the argument we must make, and win, for the sake of restoring our country to the principles of individual freedom on which it was founded.
Winning hearts and minds to this point of view would have several immediate and practical effects:
1. Everyone would have a stake in the well-being of this country.
2. Everyone would have a reasonably equal shot at what used to be called "The American Dream." (...which, by the way is not just wealth; it's prosperity. But that's a topic for another blog post.)
3. And if everybody's got a chance to prosper,
and if we agree that paying in to the system $100,000 is much more than paying $1,200,
and if having more income is understood to equate to shouldering more of the burden in terms of actual dollars,
then success wouldn't be called "unfair." It wouldn't have the stigma it's beginning to acquire in our current politically correct culture (e.g. the hated "wealthiest 1%" of the population.)
Let's get it straight: "The Rich" should, and do, pay more taxes than the rest of us. 1 In fact, this will continue to be true even if we successfully replace the current system with a "fair tax" or a "flat rate tax." We should applaud them for it, and attempt to join their ranks!
