I don’t get this, the only argument is the like Austrian school taxation is theft argument but in that case all the taxes that income tax haters like are also just as much theft.
You see a new article every week about why we need to get rid of income tax and replace it with some asinine “progressive consumption tax” that allows for poor people to write some stuff off but not other stuff its a mess.
every inane over complicated solution always runs into either not making enough, being to expensive to enforce and calculate or being regressive
even in Europe which comes the closest to this with the use of vats but income tax is still their main cash cow
this is a solution in search of a problem income tax works, economist agree when done right (as in you don’t raise income tax 50% in a day)it has the least distortion, it’s easy to collect and raises massive revenue
People are self centered, and don’t bother to take a deeper look at what is happening.
They get their paycheck and see that the gubment took 24% of their money and feel like they’ve been robbed.
At no point do they consider the years they spent in public school, or the roads they use to drive to work, or the ever present emergency services that will be available when they are needed.
You had me until the emergency services comment
Yeah. I’m with you on all of that, but in many places that’s not the situation.
Or that those things should be paid entirely out of business and top 10% taxes because they can afford it. Apparently. 👆
Obviously I agree that the rich should pay more in taxes that is common sense, but the idea we could run an economy without taxing anyone deemed “middle class” is a fantasy.
People love the European welfare state, here is the thing European taxation is way less progressive people of all income brackets pay more in taxes, I am not saying that is wrong but the fact is most Americans would hate it.
In the nordics it is a cultural assumption that everyone pays, yes even poor people.
European income tax rates are way flatter with the top income level kicking in earlier.
No it isn’t, the US was like that. They taxed everyone to fund a war then put it back, then did it again but didn’t put it back because they keep the money and here we are.
Idk about you but if the government took 24% of my money I’d be ecstatic, currently it’s much closer to 55-60%, a too-big percentage of which goes on privatising profit and nationalising losses.
Only 24 percent? What the fuck are they whining about?
I looked at my paycheck (US) vs. one of our Swedish colleagues when I was doing our payroll, and yes, the tax was about 45%, my federal withholding is much less but once you add in the deductions for 401k (unsecured pension scheme) and health insurance (that doesn’t cover anything except annual wellness until we pay in 8,000 USD) and social security (the fed pension being paid now to old people, and their healthcare) my deductions also leave about 55% of my pay for net pay.
The part I object to most in terms of cost here is the healthcare - my deductions may mirror the Swede but I don’t think they also have to cover the first 8k of cost out of pocket.
(Edit - it was Sweden not Denmark)
Exactly
Trust me if the government had to make up the difference from consumption taxes most people would lose more money to that then income tax, since income tax is predictable it can be optimized better while consumption tax has inherent variance so you have to set it high to be safe.