I don’t agree with your interpretation of the word ‘burden.’ A burden doesn’t have to be useless or unfair. A burden can be carried with pride and purpose or a burden can be can be oppressive and demeaning or it can be anywhere in between.
Taxes are also purposefully unfair. Fair would be taxes distributed equally amongst those who benefit from their expenditure. Instead, the cost of supporting society is distributed based on ones ability to bear it.
I actually completely agree with your first paragraph about the definition of burden. I think anything which places a cost on you is fair to call a burden, even if it’s one that greatly benefits society or even yourself personally in the long run.
But your second paragraph is nonsense. There’s nothing fair about a flat tax. Flat taxes place a greater burden on the lowest income, because they tend to spend a higher percentage of their income and save less, simply due to necessities being a higher percentage of their income. A flat tax completely ignores this fact.
A fair society is one on which the more you earn, the more you give back. Because you can give back more without it causing you significant extra burden.
The first paragraph is important because of this way of defining what is fair. The fact that we can accept that tax is still a burden means we can explain what is a fair tax by trying to minimise the cumulative burden on taxpayers while maximising the amount of tax brought in.
I think there is a miscommunication between both comments here on ‘fair’. Here is what I interpreted-
Taxes are never fair in the sense that one poor person will put in a penny, one middle person will put in a dollar, and one rich person will put in 1.99 and they will each receive 1 dollar back in services. This was only fair to one person of the 3, beneficially unfair to one, and penalizing unfair to another. But by paying what each was ably to pay society as a whole has been invested in 3 more dollars and no person was asked to pay outside their means.
I am not taking sides in this, just conveying the thought that ‘fair’ taxes can have multiple meanings and not just automatically jump to flat taxes.
I don’t agree with your interpretation of the word ‘burden.’ A burden doesn’t have to be useless or unfair. A burden can be carried with pride and purpose or a burden can be can be oppressive and demeaning or it can be anywhere in between.
Taxes are also purposefully unfair. Fair would be taxes distributed equally amongst those who benefit from their expenditure. Instead, the cost of supporting society is distributed based on ones ability to bear it.
I actually completely agree with your first paragraph about the definition of burden. I think anything which places a cost on you is fair to call a burden, even if it’s one that greatly benefits society or even yourself personally in the long run.
But your second paragraph is nonsense. There’s nothing fair about a flat tax. Flat taxes place a greater burden on the lowest income, because they tend to spend a higher percentage of their income and save less, simply due to necessities being a higher percentage of their income. A flat tax completely ignores this fact.
A fair society is one on which the more you earn, the more you give back. Because you can give back more without it causing you significant extra burden.
The first paragraph is important because of this way of defining what is fair. The fact that we can accept that tax is still a burden means we can explain what is a fair tax by trying to minimise the cumulative burden on taxpayers while maximising the amount of tax brought in.
I think there is a miscommunication between both comments here on ‘fair’. Here is what I interpreted-
Taxes are never fair in the sense that one poor person will put in a penny, one middle person will put in a dollar, and one rich person will put in 1.99 and they will each receive 1 dollar back in services. This was only fair to one person of the 3, beneficially unfair to one, and penalizing unfair to another. But by paying what each was ably to pay society as a whole has been invested in 3 more dollars and no person was asked to pay outside their means.
I am not taking sides in this, just conveying the thought that ‘fair’ taxes can have multiple meanings and not just automatically jump to flat taxes.
Equality vs. equity. It may not be equal, but it is equitable. Some people don’t think that is fair.
No I understood what they meant. I just completely reject the notion that that is in any way fair.