Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Most people hate taxes because they dislike being forced into giving up money, even though they know the life they live everyday was made possible through taxes, but because the exchange is involuntary, they despise it. Even though the old arguments used to promote the idea of taxes are good, there is a fatal flaw everybody gets but no one can quite articulate; taxes seem rigged. The Left thinks The Rich pay too few taxes, and The Right think The Poor don't pay enough. The Left sees wealth concentration as bad, and The Right think Welfare is. The Left see government service as admirable, and The Right consider them parasites. It's tough reconciling diametrically opposed opinions like those.

Whether taxes help or hurt depends on where that money came from. Consider this example: if your community used Property taxes to buy a gazebo for the public park, then everyone is helped and the Middle Class hurt because they paid the Property taxes; but if the gazebo is in a public park that has entry fees then The Poor are hurt because they are least able to pay the entry fees; and if the gazebo was purchased from a multinational corporation, The Rich benefit the most because their corporation made the money. The question really is: do the taxes help or hurt? Progressive taxes, which are taxes on The Rich to redistribute the wealth, help. Regressive taxes, which are taxes on everyone that subsidize The Rich, hurt.