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Published February 17. 2003
6:01AM
Division of responsibility
It's that time of year when some attempt should be
made to explain why we are not getting a tax cut, and hopefully
reveal how the slick politicians will try to pull the "tax cut
flimflam" on us, telling us that we're owed tax cuts we're not
getting, all to trick us and steal our almighty vote.
This is a very simple way to put tax
cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, 10
men go out for dinner. The bill comes to $100. If they paid their
bill as we pay our taxes, it would go something like this.
The first four men - the poorest - pay
nothing; the fifth pays $1, the sixth pays $3, the seventh $7, the
eighth $12, the ninth $18 and the 10th man - the richest - would pay
$59.
That's what they did, and
they seemed quite happy. Then one day, the owner threw them a curve
(in tax language, a tax cut).
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going
to cut the cost of your daily meal by $20." Now dinner for the 10
cost $80.
The group still wanted
to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
The first four men hadn't paid anything - so nothing
to cut.
They still ate for free.
But what about the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20
windfall so everyone would get his "fair share?"
They realized that $20 divided by six
is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then
the fifth man, who'd been paying $1 and the sixth man, who'd been
paying $3 would end up being paid to eat their meal.
So the owner suggested it would be fair
to reduce each bill the same amount.
The fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the
seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the
10th man paying $52 instead of $59. The six were better off than
before, and the first four still eat for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to
compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20,"
declared the sixth man, but he," pointing to the 10th, "got
$7!"
"I only saved a dollar too,
exclaimed the fifth man. "It's unfair that he got seven times more
than me!"
"Why should he get $7
back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" shouted
the seventh.
"Wait a minute,"
yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything at all.
The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the 10th and beat him up.
The next night he didn't show up for
dinner.
When it came time to pay
the bill, they discovered, a little late, they were $52 short of
paying the bill!
That, boys and
girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system
works.
People who pay the
highest taxes benefit most from a tax reduction.
Tax too much, attack them for being
wealthy and they just may not show up at the table anymore.
Where would that leave the rest?
Unfortunately, most taxing authorities anywhere cannot seem to grasp
this rather straightforward logic!
Armond "Si" Simmons
Pell
City
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