Quote of the day—Glen Utzman

Only tax the poor, not the wealthy. This would motivate the poor to work harder and not be poor anymore.  [Paraphrased]

Glen Utzman
Fall Semester 2011
[Via daughter Kimberly who is taking a class from Professor Utzman.

While this does make a great deal of sense I somehow doubt the idea would receive widespread support.—Joe]

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4 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Glen Utzman

  1. I have long thought something similar. Not tax X and not Y, but tax X and Y the same. Let everyone pay either the same percentage of income, or the same dollar figure (say… $1500).

    There will be an objection, “But that would strike the poor disproportionately,” or something. I would respond that our laws in this country require that everyone be treated the same, and it’s about damned time we did.

    But, to be fair, if an amount or percentage is too high for the poor, why, then we’ll lower it. But everybody STILL pays the same — just the lowered rate. That way we’re not setting American against American, yet everyone is paying “their fair share.”

    Can’t decide whether I’d bitch slap leftists who would complain that such an arrangment would make the government’s task of collecting revenue harder. “NOW you think of that, instead of your empty-headed social engineering?” But only because doing so might hurt my hand.

    But why shouldn’t we base our tax rates on what the least among us can afford, rather than what we envy in our most successful citizens?

    M

  2. Right on, Mark. You don’t have to submit a financial statement to the gas station attendant in order to determine the per gallon price you’ll pay for your fuel. Make it the same dollar figure for every American. If the poor can’t afford it, it’s too much. Lower it.

    But the whole point of any progressive tax system is to redistribute wealth through force and threats of force, and you’ve just undercut the whole bloody system with one stroke.

    That is an act of war, though of course it is an act of war in response to the act of war against liberty that put the progressive tax system in place originally.

    Meanwhile the Republican leadership is busy trying to come up with words, catchphrases, body language, hairstyles and tones of voice that their advisors tell them will play well in the media.

  3. “Only tax the poor, not the wealthy.”

    I think they tried that once, in France.
    It worked. The poor rose up (financially) and formed a middle class.
    Then the middle class rose up, and a lot of people in gov’t got decapitated.

    Actually, this idea is sounding better and better!

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