I got a phone call yesterday from a group taking a survey, actually an automated survey. I hate automated phone calls. If I get another from "Rachel of card holder services" I think I will sue for harassment. Anyway I took the survey. The survey was saying that a fair tax would be a flat sales tax. After all those who bought more would pay more.

I am sick and tired of hearing about "fair" taxes that are anything but fair. Yes I believe in progressive taxes and see them as fair. But our taxes are anything but progressive. Start with the payroll tax. That tax is not even flat across all earned income, the tax is regressive. The working poor and middle class are taxed at a much higher rate than the upper middle class (those earned income above $106,800).

Then we have the fact that capital gains are barely taxed compared to other income. But there is an exception to that. If the capital gains are part of a 401K they are taxed just like other income when they are withdrawn from the 401K. Ya gotta love that. Once again the middle class gets socked with a higher tax than the upper class just because they saved their money for retirement. The capital gains tax makes income taxes regressive and then goes one step further by being regressive itself.

The whole tax system is unfair. Adding a sales tax or a value added tax only makes the condition worse. Is there a solution. The answer is simple implement a progressive tax system on all income including payroll taxes, and add another tax. Of course the constitution will have to be amended for what I have in mind, just like the constitution was amended for the income tax. The amendment would allow all US citizens to be taxed on their wealth independent of where that wealth was.

Then I would propose a flat wealth tax on all wealth above 10 million dollars. The tax would be a flat 1%.  Of course debts could subtracted from holdings. I believe interest paid should be subtracted from income today.

Progressive taxes, simplified, along with such a wealth tax would eliminate the deficit post haste and enable investment in the future.