The writers math is off a bit based on how they explain this.
If CA pays 12% due to having that % of the population then WVA paying 10 times that rate means 120% of the population lives in WVA.
WVA raises the same tax per person but each person there, on average makes less than in CA and so the tax rate per person is higher on average.
Not what we do now where the poor pay at a lower rate than the less poor.
They are arguing that a progressive tax is unConstitutional and I agree with that but nobody has cared much anyway since 1913 or so. I guess they dance around that by saying that income tax is different than a “direct” tax.
“The writers math is off a bit based on how they explain this.
If CA pays 12% due to having that % of the population then WVA paying 10 times that rate means 120% of the population lives in WVA.”
Their math isn’t off, they’re just not explaining it adequately. The authors aren’t math-types, and, apparently, they don’t have an editor to help them along (say, for example, by editing their writing).
If Congress passes, and a President signs, such a wealth tax, a massive amount of number-crunching gets initiated in Fedzilla’s bowels. Afterwards, each state gets a bill. Each state pays a percentage based on that state’s percentage of the federal population.
The State of California will pay 12% of the wealth tax, because 12% of the people live there. However, the authors allege the tax rate will have to be higher in West Virginia for their population to pay their share, and the rate will be lower in Connecticut.
The authors appear to imagine the states enacting an “extra” tax. Or raising existing income tax rates to accommodate the wealth tax.