Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

I thought that for this Worker Wednesday I would talk about the progressive tax movement some more. I was pleased to read about the Responsible Wealth initiative which is a National trend, but also has State implications with the New Yorkers Sharing inthe Solution.

The argument that people with higher incomes already pay more than enough taxes and that a flat tax is equitable is a straw man argument. Let us take a look at the Living Wage Calculator. According to this estimator, in Fredonia village an estimated living wage for a family of two adults and two children is $60,676. (I guess those of us with more than two children just have to guess at what a living wage would be…) If this hypothetical family earning exactly the living wage pays the current maximum New York State tax of 6.85% they will be paying NY $4,156.31 in taxes. However, they are at exactly the living wage. Let’s say that family was making $100,000, they would be paying $6,850 in taxes to NY, but would still have over $30,000 more than the living wage family. Now let’s look at the first threshold posed for being ‘wealthy’, $250,000. They would pay NY $17,125 in taxes, but would still have more than $150,000 more than the living wage family. A family earning $1,000,000 would pay NY $68,500 in taxes but still have more than $800,000 more than the living wage family. So to say that these ‘wealthy’ families cannot afford to share the burden is patently false.

Let us suppose that NY raised the tax on those earning a million dollars or more to 50% (which is extreme and is not what I think it should be, but I am trying to make a point) the $1,000,000 family would pay $500,000 in tax to NY but still have more than $400,000 more than a living wage family.

A flat tax negatively affects the working class while futher increaseing the gap between them and the rich. A progressive tax still leaves the wealthy with a lot of wealth, but helps take the burden off of the working class.