My name is Andres Feijoo and I am a student at the University of Connecticut. In my political theory class, we were divided into groups and assigned topics to debate, topics that deal with current issues. The case my group was assigned was about a woman who is sueing the government over an unfair tax system that profits the rich, energy companies, and military contractors that benefit from the Iraq war. We have to argue on behalf of the government defending the tax system. Besides having to refer to the arguments that political philosophers would have made like Thomas Hobbes or Adam Smith, I would like your help in informing me of persuasive contemporary arguments I could use in defending a tax system that according to this women only benefits the wealthy and powerful.For example how do these tax policies benefit greater society and even herself. I need an answer by Thursday. Thank you.
Answer Tell your hypothetical woman that she is laboring under a false allusion. In the U.S., 50% of all income taxes (I am assuming you are talking about income taxes) are paid by those in the top 5% income bracket. The middleclass and corporations pay the other 50% of taxes.
The reason why she believes that the tax system "benefits" the wealthy is because it is the weathy who mostly pay the tax. Give her this news bulletin - THE POOR DO NOT PAY INCOME TAX. The reason they don't "benefit" is because they have nothing to benefit from. You only "gain" from the tax system when you pay taxes.
In reality, with the "earned-income" tax credit, the poor are actually given more money than they pay in - if they pay anything. I shall give you a personal example. Two years ago, I was doing the income taxes for my daughter-in-law, after I completed my own. I just got finished paying $900 in additional taxes over the amount that was taken out during the year.
She had just gone through a divorce, had two kids, and worked a part-time job, trying to live on her salary and what child-support and alimony she was receiving.
She got a full refund of all of her withholding taxes, AND because of the earned-income credit, she received an additional $900. She said, "How can I get $900 more than I paid in taxes?" I responded, "apparently, it is coming from me."
The bottom 25% of American citizens pays no income taxes at all. Most get an earned income credit (which has to come from someone else), and that means you and I, and other people who work, give them our money.
To say that our tax system benefits the wealthy is intellectually vapid. The people who really benefit from our system are the poor. They pay nothing in, yet they get money out. I won't even dicuss the BILLIONS of dollars in social welfare programs like Headstart, Medicaid, school lunch programs, etc., etc., etc., (you can download 8 pages of single-spaced type from Health and Human Services listing all their programs) which are all paid by the taxes of the "wealthy," and utilized by the poor.
Take this hypothetical moron of a woman somewhere after you complete your exercise, and see if you can beat her to death with baseball bats before she can reproduce others as intellectually challenged as herself.
