Progressive Taxes

So there is an NPR radio program called Word for Word that replays a speech by famous and/or smart people and I listened to one today that I really liked. It was by David Cay Johnston, author of several books about government, his latest is called Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill. He talked about huge subsidies to businesses and their effect on the economy, and taxes. The part about subsides was eye opening and got me all riled up against subsidies and corruption in government, but the part about taxes, specifiacally the progressive tax system that we use, was really well explained and put into words kind of how I feel about progressive taxes.

He basically said that there is no economic gain without civilization. That living in anarchy, you can’t have property or really start a business because someone could just come along and take what you have, there being no laws to protect you. But civilization makes wealth possible. And since you can only become wealthy by living in a civilized state, the greater the economic gain you’ve achieved from living in that civilized society, the greater your duty to maintain that society with your taxes. Those that benefit the most, should pay the most.

Over the years I've heard several flat tax advocates talk about how unfair it is and cast it in a negative, socialist/communist light, but it came long before communism. The ancient Greeks used it, Adam Smith praised it, and even John Locke was in favor of it. It's not something new and it's not something bad. Today, with the divide between rich and poor growing, I think it's important that we keep it.

Anyway, that's my thought for the night and I need to get to bed now.