Title: Conservative Arguments Against Progressive Taxes | Pocketsense
Headings: Conservative Arguments Against Progressive Taxes
Conservative Arguments Against Progressive Taxes
Hurting Job Creators
Punishing Success
Class Warfare
Inequality
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Content: Punishing success also has the potential to hurt innovation, since people are less likely to take risks on new ideas if the government takes a big cut of profits. 00:00
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Class Warfare
Another argument against progressive taxation is that it constitutes a form of "class warfare" that pits the richest and poorest people against one another. According to Forbes, the richest 1 percent of taxpayers pay about 36 percent of federal income taxes, while the bottom 47 percent of income earners pay no income tax at all, a case of the poor "riding free" on others, according to SUNY Fredonia professor Stephen Kershnar. Many conservatives believe that people who benefit from progressive taxes generally favor shifting more of the tax burden onto the top earners. Inequality
One of the main goals of a progressive tax system is to charge taxes according to an individual's ability to pay, so that everyone pays his fair share. For example, a 15 percent tax rate could have a significant impact on the standard of living of someone making $20,000 a year, while it isn't likely to have much of an effect on someone making $1 million a year. Conservatives sometimes argue that imposing different tax rates on different people is inherently unfair and completely arbitrary. The amount that constitutes a “fair share” is subjective. Opponents of progressive taxes often propose that a flat tax that imposes the same tax rate on everyone is the fairest way to tax income. References
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics: