"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Dec 2006 14:43:58 -0700, "Sidney Greenstreet"
said:

It's not at all about "fairness". Equal is fair. It's all about
penalization.

Trying to stick a label like "penalization" on either the present system
or
any proposed changes does nothing to further the discussion. It simply
demonstrates an inability or unwillingness to engage in any meaningful
discussion.


It's not a label. It's the rationale used. Someone goes out and earns money.
His neighbors claim "that's not fair!" and confiscate it because he earned
more than they did.

Income tax is the only progressive pay scale for services I know of. In the
private sector the rate actually decreases with economy of scale. the more
one buys the less per quanta of that item.

Taxation is used for social engineering. You get a "break" (no taxes) for
buying a "green car". Taxes are imposed by the will of others. The lack of
taxes is no "break", just as someone not beating you with a club is
"friendship". The lack of taxation requires no effort, it is the natural
state. Taxation is the result of effort, to tax someone more because they
earn more is not motivated by fairness, it is penalization. Why aren't
prices in stores set to an individual's income rather than being fixed. Why
should Bill Gates pay the same for toilet paper as I? That's not fair!

Taxes do not make things fair. They work as a disincentive to earn more
dollars, or to expose wealth to taxation (hence tax avoidance schemes). The
natural reaction to taxation is to avoid it, hence it is a penalty.

I can clearly show the penalty in dollars and cents for taxation of two
individuals with disparate incomes. I challenge anyone to show the fairness
by objective measurement. You point to remove any sense of labels is
courageous but it also removes any value judgement or mechanism to even
question the morality of taxation.