[Devilinbaggypants]

Why in the world should the `rich’ have to pay more than the `poor’? It's getting to the point that there's more benefits to being poor than rich! IMHO...the only fair thing to do is implement a flat tax system...at least everyone get's to pay into the system then...rich, poor, legal and illegal aliens, tourists etc!

[caseinpoint]

I thought the flat tax system was a percentage of income, just the same for everyone and that means the rich would pay more than the poor. I suppose if you could sequester the government budgets into programs that benefitted everyone equally and tax everyone equally, it would be nice but I’m not sure it could be done with any degree of logic or fairness and practically, I doubt any government would assent to being hamstrung by such sequestration. (Just to give an example: do the poor or the rich benefit more from urban renewal? You can argue that both groups benefit and then start quibbling about how much. It would be an endless and rancorous debate and there are thousands of such programs which arguably benefit both poor and rich.)

[Bobarian]

I agree, but you can't get elected running on that platform.

Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Force everyone in the village to give him a fish, he'll vote for you in the next election.