Hearing the Falconer #34 ~ 19-Apr-2019 ~ A Moderate Thinks About Taxes

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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19-April-2019: How Should We Tax Ourselves?
Current Tax vs. Flat Tax vs. Fair Tax
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As a moderate I believe taxes should not be too high or too low. Obviously, the problem is figuring out what "too high" and "too low" actually mean.

But even if we figure that out we have to think about what KIND of tax plan to have. The article I link to here describes three different types of tax plans. Should we have a progressive plan like the one we have now? Should we have a flat tax? Should we have a fair tax?

I really don't know which is best but I could see a flat tax plan working. It might work if every individual and every company in the United States paid exactly the same percentage of tax on every form of income. It might work if there were no exceptions, no exemptions, and no loopholes.

There are some advantages to this scheme, for sure. First, it is simple! Second, it seems inherently fair to many people. Third, it will continually remind everyone exactly how much money the government is spending. Kind of important information in a representative government like ours.

We would still need government assistance programs for people struggling with poverty, unemployment, illness, or handicaps. We would also still assist people seeking higher education. But all these assistance programs should be run separately from our tax code. You pay your flat tax first and then, if you need help. you get it.

We could also have government rewards to encourage companies to hire more workers or to raise wages or to install pollution controls or to do other things that benefit society and are deserving of some reward. There could also be rewards to encourage individuals to buy homes or donate to charities or to contribute to retirement accounts or to do other things that benefit society and are deserving of some reward. But again, these rewards should be run separately from our tax code. You pay your flat tax first and then, if you have done something deserving of a reward, you get it.

I don't know for sure. I'm just brainstorming here. But maybe that could work.

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

Truman