There is a lot about taxes that we are in no position to have a good opinion on. I don't know what a fair tax system would be. We are too far off the ranch to have any bearings to build a square foundation. But there are a few things we could change about how we pay taxes that would put us in a better position to eventually develop strong views about a fair tax system.
Taxes have been around forever. Commissions are like a tax. Tips are too. It makes sense for the one who is doing the work to be compensated for it. But the way taxes are normally done these days is a problem. Consider how we are taxed for our own labor, and for the things we already own. Here the government gets a commission on something it doesn't play any direct role it. Some will argue that the government makes it possible for us to work and to maintain our property so they have right to tax. But this misses the point. If the government is rightly managing and protecting the things that keep us free to earn and own, then tax those things. Put up till booths on the roads and bridges and stuff like that, tax real things. If you can't make the money back to fund the stuff that government is doing, then let a private business try it. We would feel better about taxes if they were associated with something we experience a return of value from. This is the place where we will be in a position to figure out the best system.
In a similar way, there is value in paying taxes with cash in an experience-able moment. Siphoning taxes out of paychecks, adding sales taxes to our total bill, these things train us to be disengaged from our government. When the transaction is obscured, the parties involved are obscured. It is a pain to have to give up the convenience, but the convenience is the pot brought slowly to a boil, and we are the frog inside.
Taxes aren't really taxes until the transaction becomes more concrete. Because of how far off the trail we have travelled it won't be until we are handing over physical money as tax for a real good or service we won't understand taxes enough to build a fair tax system.
i have often said that the best way to reform taxes is to remove the employer withholding through the W-2. Imagine the anarchy that would result if citizens got a tax bill every April 15th! I always laugh when someone gets a tax return like it is free money, when it is really simply the money the government took and held interest free over the last year.
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