Ignore the Left’s collective scream about the new tax bill — it will confer a benefit on those who are economically in the lower half of American earners.
I’m not an economist, but I was blessed with a fair amount of common sense. Despite Democrat hysteria, it’s obvious that “the little people” will fare better under the proposed tax bill than they do now — and for a reason the Republicans ought to be speaking about a lot but, because they’re bozos, they are not.
Before getting to the most significant benefit for the less wealthy under the new tax bill, let’s look at life under the current tax laws. First, it’s helpful to define terms and the two terms I want to look at are “progressive” and “regressive”.
A Progressive tax is one that sees tax rates increases proportionately to an individual’s increase in taxable wealth. The first X number of dollars are subject to a low tax rate, the next X+1 dollars are subject to a higher tax rate, and so on for each increase in X dollars. In other words, as you make money, the government demands a bigger and bigger cut. It’s a wealth tax.
The opposite of a Progressive tax is a Regressive tax. That is a tax that places a disproportionate burden on those least able to bear it. Back in the late 14th century, England enacted a poll tax, requiring every person in the kingdom to pay a fixed amount just for being alive. That led to a Peasants’ Revolt, because the amount of the tax placed a vastly disproportionate burden on the poor, to whom a shilling was a fortune, than on the rich, to whom a shilling was negligible.
Currently, America ostensibly does not have a “Regressive” tax system. This is a lie. America’s tax code is highly regressive. This is because we have the highest corporate tax rate in the Western world. Yay, say Lefties. Let’s stick it to the corporations. That sentiment proves that Lefties are either stupid or uninformed. [Read more…]