The welfare and progressive tax systems are less preferable than...

------------------------- CONCESSION: "You did the brackets wrong as well. " I concede that I did the brackets wrong. I just came upon a source verifying this (. http://www.encyclopedia.com...). I apologize for a little misunderstanding. What remains then left for me to argue that people should not pay a higher percentage for making more. ------------------------------ Specific arguments: "We've had the taxes like this for a long time and there's absolutely no evidence that people try to earn less money because additional money will be taxed at a higher percentage. " I. E. , I've never seen England so it must be ugly. "Further, the people making the most aren't that hard working, innovative, efficient, or productive and offering them more money isn't going to make them any more of those things. The idea that everybody is paid their worth is frankly wrong, a number of people are paid millions upon millions of dollars for doing considerably less work than a blue collar worker" Give me a solid example. In all cases of employment (save some labor union examples), people are paid less than they produce or are worth to the company. If a worker produces $30,000 in goods, than there is no reason for an employer to pay him more than that. Such a tendency would result in a net loss for the company. It just doesn't make sense. Corporate executives are paid massive sums of money because they are worth more to a company than other individuals, as their decisions can result in net gains of billions of dollars or net losses of billions. "and less innovative than the average R&D person. " I made the innovative claim as an argument that innovation is a way to make labor more productive (thus being one of the ways to increase the value of one's labor). "Flat taxes don't work. They are just a massive tax cut on the massively rich. " From another perspective, progressive taxes do not work. They are just a massive burden on the investing class. "The idea that somebody really works 1000 times harder than a person making 30 thousand because they earn 30 million and that if we tax that person at 30% rather than 50% they will do 20% more is absurd. " Actually, it's just a product of capitalism. In modern times, intellectual work is valued more than hard labor for a series of reasons (I'll mention if asked). It is not that one is working harder as much as it is that they are producing less. For example, one could work hard labor for hours trying to dig a hole in their property. However, that does not make that hole nominally valuable, because there is no demand for it. The laborer has produced nothing ultimately. In another example, a worker goes up to a road and spends hours destroying it. Ultimately, the value of that labor is negative, as it requires more labor to fix the situation. Without production, labor is worthless. "Make no mistake, you're proposing a middle-class tax hike that will take in less money over all, during a recession. " Actually, the percentages could be adjusted so that no tax revenue is lost. It wouldn't be difficult. ------------------------ The MEAT AND POTATOES "The people most able to pay taxes pay the most taxes. " As it is under both systems. It is, however, to a different degree. Wage originates in the value of what is produced for the employer. People make more when they produce more or become more valuable. When people do such things to become more valuable (in their own self-interest), they do not owe their successes to society. People are not wealthy or unwealthy because they made others less wealthy, but because they produced or made themselves valuable. They do not owe this new surplus to society. The negative tax system achieves the same purpose as welfare while replacing the progressive tax at the same time. The negative tax is much simpler in that it combines two complicated systems into a less complicated one. A flat negative tax is more economically ethical in that people's labor is not confiscated at a higher rate for being over a line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I await your response.