“And for that matter, what is wrong with a tax system that rewards hard study and work leading to a good occupation? How about a standard tax rate for everyone that gets REDUCED when you receive an education in the applied sciences or medicine? How about decreasing tax rates with each year of work? How about tax cuts for life accomplishments? What do you think would become of the economic state of a country that practices these principles? I would be interested to know what others think.”
Wow. You really want government deciding what occupations and life accomplishments are deserving of tax breaks ?? You’d end up with government workers and union members and college professors being taxed at zero and the actual productive workers paying double.
Your fears are, unfortunately, correct. Having government choose who gets to be rewarded produces a situation like our current situation. However, the thought experiment I propose is to reverse the systemic incentives. That is, instead of penalizing greater accomplishment, what would happen if we rewarded greater accomplishment (not defined by people who are themselves rewarded by garnering votes)? Perhaps the only sustainable solution is to bar government from deciding who earns and keeps their earnings.