As an aside, according to one of the cable crime shows Latino gangs of illegals have taken over large sections of Atlanta suburbs, including entire apartment complexes.
It will be interesting to read Linda’s analysis of the tax bill.
I now have to go back through an 1100 page tax text and line up revisions for next semester (lecturing complex entities to senior accounting students next semester). Sigh…….
If the argumants are politcal and philosophical rather than technical or economic, then it degenerates to a metter of pure personal preference.
There has to be some technical basis for a flat tax being better or worse than a progressive tax. Otherwise, it simply wouldn’t matter in amy meaningful way, and that doesn’t seem credible.
Economists present arguments going both ways, and I don’t think the arguments are ever completely divvorced from ideology, because the entire tax system is steeped in ideology.
Been to a Crips or Bloods neighborhood in EaseLA lately? Down here in SWGA we have the Sons of the Confederacy and Tea Partiers leaping and teeming. One way or another, every group has its gangs. NancyO
Well, sure. That’s why I’m looking for a rational presentation, based on the merits, rather than on ideology.
Isn’t such a thing posssible? I can think of general categories of inquiry – effect on federal budget, ability to pay at various income levels, marginal utility of the next earned dollar, effects on GDP of redistribution (or not) simplification/complexity of the tax code. And there have to be other important factors beyond this list.
Try this. Income is not distributed in a “flat,” i.e. even, manner. Nor are tax collections equal to total government expenses. A balanced system of taxation must take into account who is benefiting most from the economic system supported by the government collecting those taxes. Taxation is the means by which the citizens support the efforts of the government. If that government’s efforts benefit citizens in a variable manner then the taxation of those citizens must also be variable and in accord with the benefits received.
Check this out.
Foreign-born population continues to grow in metro Atlanta
Saturday, December 18, 2010
http://www.ajc.com/news/foreign-born-population-continues-780806.html
Here’s the study:
State of Metropolitan America | Number 22
The Impact of the Great Recession on Metropolitan Immigration Trends
The Brookings Institution
December 16, 2010
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/1216_immigration_singer_wilson.aspx
What is the most cogent, coherent, concise and convincing set of arguments against the flat tax?
Cheers!
JzB
Because conservatives like it?
The flat tax is flat, it does not adjust relavitve to goods purchased.
As an aside, according to one of the cable crime shows Latino gangs of illegals have taken over large sections of Atlanta suburbs, including entire apartment complexes.
The arguments are largely political and philosophical rather than technical or economic.
It will be interesting to read Linda’s analysis of the tax bill.
I now have to go back through an 1100 page tax text and line up revisions for next semester (lecturing complex entities to senior accounting students next semester). Sigh…….
Dan, Linda has a piece up on her blog, I assume it will appear here soon.
If the argumants are politcal and philosophical rather than technical or economic, then it degenerates to a metter of pure personal preference.
There has to be some technical basis for a flat tax being better or worse than a progressive tax. Otherwise, it simply wouldn’t matter in amy meaningful way, and that doesn’t seem credible.
Cheers!
JzB
Economists present arguments going both ways, and I don’t think the arguments are ever completely divvorced from ideology, because the entire tax system is steeped in ideology.
Sure….thanks for the headsup…I am kind of distracted.
Been to a Crips or Bloods neighborhood in EaseLA lately? Down here in SWGA we have the Sons of the Confederacy and Tea Partiers leaping and teeming. One way or another, every group has its gangs. NancyO
Well, sure. That’s why I’m looking for a rational presentation, based on the merits, rather than on ideology.
Isn’t such a thing posssible? I can think of general categories of inquiry – effect on federal budget, ability to pay at various income levels, marginal utility of the next earned dollar, effects on GDP of redistribution (or not) simplification/complexity of the tax code. And there have to be other important factors beyond this list.
Cheers!
JzB
Try this. Income is not distributed in a “flat,” i.e. even, manner. Nor are tax collections equal to total government expenses. A balanced system of taxation must take into account who is benefiting most from the economic system supported by the government collecting those taxes.
Taxation is the means by which the citizens support the efforts of the government. If that government’s efforts benefit citizens in a variable manner then the taxation of those citizens must also be variable and in accord with the benefits received.