Reply #125: What's wrong with it is that you didn't get it.

[JackRiddler]

As it's perhaps the fault of vagueness in my writing, allow me to rephrase:

Everyone gets a single, $100,000 exemption on their taxable income for federal taxes - no other loopholes. So if you make $10,000 or $100,000, you pay nothing. If you make $100,001, you pay 50 cents. That's kind of crazy sounding at that level, agreed, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere.

The point is that someone making 5.1 million pays 2.5 million. And everyone making $50,000 is no longer screwed (with a "low" rate, ha ha) just for working like a chump. Working for an income is no longer punished. But it's also no longer tolerated that others make a fortune and pay next to nothing. Get it?

The shortfall should be made up by environmental charges. People under $100 k will mostly end up paying a similar total in taxes, but with a voluntary dimension through prices that condition the market away from ecological disaster. Also with an incentive to save.

Get it?