Denys wrote:

"Next you will be telling me that since Bill Gates has so much money, he
should pay $30 for a gallon of gas instead of the regular price.  He can
afford it.

You fail to understand the concept behind taxes.  They are not meant to
be used for income redistribution and/or social engineering, they are
meant to provide the funds for the government to operate.  They are
supposed to be applied fairly and equally.  They are not meant to punish
achievement.

Unfortunately, too many politicians have the same concept of taxes as
you."


Actually taxes are meant to redistribute wealth, whether you agree that is
correct or not is another matter, but it is the case.  If you think Bill
Gates should pay the same amount of Tax as someone on welfare, then
basically you whole society would crumble.  Jo Six-pack wouldn't be able to
pay the tax, so would lose everything, he wouldn't be entitled to an
education, health care, housing or food as he couldn't afford it.  The only
positive would be that he couldn't go to prison as their would be enough
money to pay for those or the police for that matter.

Clearly if you have a responsible society it is not unreasonable, IMO, to
expect people with a much higher income to contribute more to that society.
Basically any government funded services to help people in their education,
health, housing and food is redistributing the wealth.

Of course there has to be a balance, you can't just rob people who have
worked hard and give the money to people who are not prepared to work, but
clearly taxes are meant in some form to address the imbalance of wealth in a
society.

Deny's I have the impression that you and Mary Antoinette would have got on
well.

My only issue with Taxes, especially here in Belgium (where it's about 50%
of your income), is the shear number of different Taxes, House, Inheritance,
Car, TVA (sales tax), TV & Radio, etc.  Why not just have Income tax and TVA
(VAT, Sales Tax), then I guess most things would be covered and savings
could be made in administration.






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