Lessons from the Flat Tax | UnArchived: Lessons from History

In the 1980s, simplifying America’s tax code provided better incentives to work, save, and invest. Wanting to go even further, Alvin Rabushka and Bob Hall proposed a flat tax. Though it was not adopted in America, countries that have implemented the flat tax have seen less tax avoidance and more tax revenue.

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Watch “Why Tax Rates Matter More than Taxes” on PolicyEd. Available here:

[rossmartenak]

The United States SHOULD be on a Flat Tax system of taxation. Every business and individual should pay the same percentage of income tax. This would eliminate the overly complicated and unecessary tax system we have in place in the US currently. First off, if all businesses and wage earners were proportionally taxed, it would be more fair to all. It would be a win-win situation. This would eliminate tax loop-holes. No more tax breaks of ANY kind for ANYBODY, would be a more fair and a refreshing change.The IRS would become strictly a Tax Collection Agency, thus able to operate with probably about 20% of the personnel it employs today. There'd be no 'April 15', as taxes would be deducted all-along-the-way, no more high-priced Tax Accountants or Tax Lawyers would be needed. With Flat Taxation, there would be a drastic reduction in paperwork and no yearly changes in the tax laws.

[moragslothe]

Leaving out juuuust enough to try and make your point. Half-truths are lies.

[ConstantineKrystallis]

Correction: Greece was never part of the Soviet union as shown in the map at 1:28... a civil war was fought to remain democratic and remained part of the west. Clearly you need to inform your motion designer that they have made a mistake.

[andrewvelonis]

We should absolutely go back to the pre-Reagan tax structure. Notice how much wealth has been sucked up to the very few at the top since then. The rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer and the middle class has become smaller.
I have no problem with the high tax rate for the excessively rich. And the canard that the money "goes to the government" is a straw man. WE ARE the government! And to have infrastructure, schools, and higher learning suffer because there isn't enough money when ultra-billionaires rake in more money than entire cities is counter-productive and immoral.

[AgentGWG]

Great video! The map at 1:50 gave me a stroke trying to understand, but the information was powerful!

[heilmadon]

Short answer people will spend less to hide their money when they think its not worth it and its harder to evade taxes when everything is so simple. A flat tax with more social welfare might help the problem with lower class households.

[btvndjo]

I believe in a flat rate for all taxpayers. Tired of so many people not paying any income tax.

[seanmcdonald]

Hang on . . . 'simplifying' something and 'reducing' something are two very different things: having several tax brackets that easily implemented simple is perfectly feasible and achievable. We arent talking international corporate tax here after all.

[nitemare]

I've always been pro flat taxes across the board

[markellison]

Ummm... yes and no. The major reason why our tax system is "progressive" is because if you do a flat tax on everyone it hits everyone. If you have everyone pay 25% percent of their income, even poor people will have to pay that 25%, which about half of that goes along way even in America.

Also, it should be noted that I do believe that a flat tax would be good... if it was the 1950, when even lower tax brackets had way more discretionary money to spend. But to implemented it with today's current economic status climate would a disaster. There are sooo many other problems that we need to resolve, like government spending and low productivity grow, before we can put flat tax into action

A better model that would help people right now is progressive Laffer curve model and do it for ALL income... yes this even includes long term capital gains tax and stock buy backs for corporations over a certain limit. "But will that not slow the productivity grow and scare off big investors?" No, because then companies will, a should, invest into their folks more and we should have our government focus on bring down the debt to a point were we see a prolonged period of healthy deflation... both will increase individual discretionary spending. Anyhow, that is how I see it.

[ADHDnNOLA]

Because the results of the 80s on the Soviet Union were great… oh wait

[homergee]

A flat tax on personal income is playing monopoly with other peoples lives