> Ok, flat taxes are KISS (which is why populist parties promote them), but in
> order to make them "fair", (i.e. when the government fixes up the rough
> edges), hassles in other areas go up, so overall it never is KISS.

Flat taxes are bad for everybody but the extremely rich.

You don't even need much math to figure this out.

I'm in the US. Assume that the government needs as much next year (with
the hypothetical flat tax) as it does this year and everybody will pay
the same percentage.

Bill Gate's taxes go *way* down. How much do the rest of us have to pay
in taxes to make up the deficit?

One simple (as in minded) fix is to have a deductable of $20,000 or
whatever with a flat tax over that. Now, calculate the number such that
the middle class doesn't end up with a *huge* increase.

I used to support flat taxes until I actually did the math. It isn't
difficult. Flat taxes hurt all but the rich. The fact that they sound
"fair" doesn't make it any better. I also support removing all taxes
based on anything but actual income for the same reason. Why should
anybody be taxed on the market value of their home when it really has
no value until it is sold?

Oh well, rant off.
-- 
D. Jay Newman           ! Author of:
jay@sprucegrove.com     ! _Linux Robotics: Building Smarter Robots_
http://enerd.ws/robots/ ! (Now I can get back to building robots.)
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