Representation, Shmepresentation

Even though government has repeatedly proven itself to be (at best) inept and (at worst) injurious in managing public funds and providing public services, I admit that modern life requires some form of income tax. I am willing to pay my “fair share”, whatever that is.

I agree with Ron Paul that our current taxation system and its enforcer (the IRS) have become perhaps the most hideous example of good governmental intentions gone horribly, grotesquely wrong (OK, the Social Security Administration is a close second). The IRS employs over 100,000 people. How many millions of business and personal tax professionals are there? How did taxation get to be a career, let alone a growth industry?

I resent a system that requires me to calculate how much tax I owe and then penalizes me when I guess wrong at the end of the tax year. I resent a system that lets very rich people pay nothing at all. Yes, I know that people above a certain income level pay the great percentage of the total tax taken by the government, but that is NOT my my point. No one who makes a ton of money in this country should skate for free.

I am strongly in favor of a flat income tax for this country--ten percent for the bulk of citizens, 25% over a certain income, a graded scale from nine down to zero percent for those below the poverty line-- no exemptions, no credits, and no deductions.

Failing that, I believe some kind of consumption tax would still be better than the current income taxation system.