Shared Sacrifice

Glenn Reynolds has a good post on the concept of shared sacrifice, and how unfortunately that concept seems lost in the income tax system. He also recognizes a problem I've been discussing for awhile:

On a related note, I think we should rethink this business of having lots of Americans who don't pay income tax. As the Tax Foundation comments: "It is time for a serious public discussion of whether it is desirable to have so many Americans disconnected from the cost of government and what the consequences are of using the tax system as a vehicle for social policy."

Personally, I'd like to see everyone pay at least some income tax, and I'd like to see the amount of tax paid, by everyone, go up or down every year in tandem with federal spending. That would encourage fiscal discipline directly. It would also make it harder for politicians to promise everybody a free lunch, but hey -- why shouldn't they sacrifice something, too?

Democrats, and even some Republicans, tell us that "fairness" means a lot of people don't have to pay any taxes while those from the middle up of the income percentiles have to pay them all. That's not fairness at all.

Fairness is each person paying an equal percentage. That way when new spending is proposed that will increase taxes, every person has a stake in what's about to happen and is in a position to do something about it. With more than 40% of wage earners paying nothing in income tax politicians can do pretty much whatever they want knowing that the 40% with no stake in the matter won't care.