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The premise for the progressive tax is that those that have benefited the most from the infrastructure provided by the government should repay the most. I don't
by keithnoizu 13y ago
The premise for the progressive tax is that those that have benefited the most from the infrastructure provided by the government should repay the most. I don't think that tenant disappears the second you include a basic income allotment.
- scarmig 13y agoIn my experience, most educated proponents of progressive taxation believe in something like "the marginal utility per dollar for poor people is higher than that of rich people, and the government should attempt to tax toward some concept of equi-utility," though I'm certainly open to hearing that that's not what most believe. In other words, taxing $1 from a poor person takes food out of their mouth while taxing $1 from a rich person delays the purchase of a new yacht by 1 second, so we should take that money from the person who'll lose less utility by its taking. We also don't realistically attempt to tax people according to some abstract conception of who has benefited the most from government infrastructure.
- keithnoizu 13y agoAlso true, and equally applicable even if a base income were provided.
- yummyfajitas 13y agoBut if that were the case, then we would have a progressive consumption tax, not a progressive income tax. Consumption is the benefit received from society. Income is merely potential consumption. And the rich tend not to consume to their full potential - rather, they tend to reinvest significant chunks of their income in society instead.