The only "fair" tax is the one where each individual pays exactly the same amount to the government. Not a percentage; a flat amount.
Set a budget. Divide by the number of citizens theoretically able to pay taxes. Bill each citizen for their individual share of the budget.
"Fair" means we all pay the same amount, from Warren Buffett and William H. Gates, to the homeless guy under the Shelby Street Bridge.
Bill is a citizen; I am a citizen; the guy under the bridge is (probably) a citizen. All citizens, regardless of station, are equal under the law - so we should all be equal contributors. No more; no less.
Let's use Will's numbers for 2007.
For population number, I'll pull stats from the CIA World Factbook:
"Manpower available for Military Service"
(Males and Females between 16 and 49): 145,212,010
"Population Between 15 and 64 years old":209,219,416
Obviously this is somewhat of a Fermi problem...
I'll split the difference (and fudge 5 years of growth) between "People of Military Service Age" and "People between 15 and 64", for a "Number of people who should be able to pay taxes" of 177,215,713 in 2007.
The demand for revenue which must be met by the citizens through taxes, is the 2007 tax revenue plus the deficit we ran. This number is $1,694,411,000,000. Divide that by the 177 million number of worthy citizens, and the share per citizen would have been $9,561.29.
If you paid more than $9,561.29 in taxes in 2007 (I did), you carried part of, all of, or more than one of, your fellow citizens. If you paid less, someone else carried you.
I've worked this problem before through the years. The share-per-citizen always works out to between $8K and $11K.
Yes, I know this is an impossibility. But all other concepts of what is "fair", other than this, the burden shared equally among equal citizens, are wrong.
So... how many of your fellow citizens are you carrying?
|