I haven't done a "favorite blog posts" article in awhile, but I came across some stories recently that I really liked.
Glblguy over at Gather Little By Little shared a thought-provoking tax story he received in an email. Interesting way to look at things!
I recently started reading a cute, fun blog written by Big Mama. She just came back from a trip to the Dominican Republic with Compassion International and had one last story to share. This one is a real tear-jerker!
Lastly, Rocket Finance is starting a new series on Finances and Freedom. He leans right, so you may or may not want to keep up with this one ;) I'm really enjoying it so far.
Have a great weekend!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Favorite Blog Posts: 11/21/2008
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3 comments:
thanks for the link!
"leans right" . . . hmmm . . . are you being tactful or insulting?
:)
Definitely tactful! I "lean right" too :)
Hey, on that tax story; I think the flaw is that it misses the total tax picture. The income tax (which is progressive) accounts for (I think) about a third of total taxes. Sales/property taxes are flat taxes, which can be said to be regressive (hurt the poor more than the rich) because the poor have less disposable income. The payroll tax (social security) is actually regressive, as there is a cap beyond which the tax is not assessed (due to the nature of the program as "retirement savings", this may make sense; but it's worth nothing. So in the US, we have one regressive tax, one flat tax, and one progressive tax, which ends up being pretty balanced.
Then consider that the wealthy most directly benefit from the government (welfare horror stories aside). The wealthy get wealthy because the government builds roads, upholds justice, polices the populace, etc. A poor person certainly benefits from roads, when he drives to get to work; a wealthy person benefits one-hundred-fold when his business uses the road system to transport his goods. (the poor benefit from this as well, but it's less direct). And of course, the biggest item in the budget, the Military, exists to protect the wealthy people here (the theory is that nobody would care to attack us if we were a nation of poor people, so we wouldn't need a military, thus the wealthy benefit most from the military).
So we end up with basically a flat tax system that disproportianally benefits the wealthy. This is no surprise, because pretty much every political philosopher has equated wealth with government power, and human nature being what it is, those in power are most likely to turn government to benefit themselves (while using the media to tell everybody differently, thus the horror stories of welfare moms, which are really inconsequential compared to military spending). I'm not saying redistribution of wealth is the option; but cleaning up the current situation is probably a good idea.
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