An Equal Rate for an Equal Citizenry: The Need for a Flat Tax
As a nation with a serious case of income inequality, the best solution to this problem is a 17% flat tax. The form itself would be no larger than a postcard; its questions no more difficult than registering to join Facebook or Twitter.
To anyone who argues against this proposal, to those who believe the enactment of a flat tax is improbable and its use is impractical, I suggest we look at the existing alternative: An ever-growing volume of biblical proportions – an agency bible that exceeds the word count of the actual Bible – that is less intelligible than calculus, more impenetrable than astrophysics and more intimidating than six weeks of boot camp at Parris Island.
I do not exaggerate when I make these comparisons because our tax code is so confusing – so deliberately confusing – that its interpretation involves a squadron of lawyers, accountants, financial planners, former IRS officers and forensic experts.
It is this self-perpetuating series of addenda, appendices, revisions and subsections that is responsible for the permanent employment of tax specialists, the anointed priests of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and top law firms, that is the greatest contributor to income inequality.
If you want to see the results of this imbalance, look no further than the wreckage of downtown Baltimore where, conflicts between African-Americas and the police notwithstanding, poor people do not have the luxury of exploiting the tax code; they do not have the skills to maximize every deduction and claim every relevant exemption.
In this void, where the wealthy escape the highest rates of assessment and the impoverished fail to enjoy the lowest rates of taxation, there is a huge transfer of money out of the city – a cultural exhalation as awful as the inhalation of oxygen fueling the fires of abandoned warehouses and looted stores – that leaves almost nothing for education and infrastructure.
A flat tax is not a panacea for some of these issues, which are as old as the founding of this country and as constant as humanity itself, but it is not without its power to make America a fairer society because economic justice is the basis of social justice.
The best example of this point is well beyond our shores, in Hong Kong, where, without rich deposits of natural resources and no military influence save a few ceremonial positions during British colonial rule, the world’s most vertical city – a region of limited flat land and the dense concentration of skyscrapers – is a financial success, peopled by a literate, industrious and talented citizenry.
With a 15% flat tax, Hong Kong outperforms the United States with a lower unemployment rate, lower individual and corporate tax rates, and an overall lower tax burden as a percentage of GDP, according to Business Insider.
Whether America adopts a 15% or 17% flat tax is less important than the simplification of the tax code in its entirety. The federal government could collect more revenues, and have less people manipulating the system (who manage, by actions unethical or otherwise, to pay no income tax), because filing and mailing a postcard is matter of seconds and cents ($0.34, to be exact).
A flat tax is an antidote to the cynicism that pollutes our politics, and corrupts our sense of civic duty. It is a leveler for inclusion – an ingathering of our fellow Americans – so we get the government we deserve, which is also all the government we need.
Fair and transparent, and proven and popular, a flat tax is an overdue necessity.
The urgency is undeniable, and the demand is unmistakable.
We need a flat tax now!
Elizabeth Rice Grossman
elizabeth rice grossman 
Ms. Grossman,
What a treasure trove of thought you have here with this wonderful blog! Thank you so much for enriching my daily web surfing. I would love to contribute to the conversation.
Concerning your comments on “The Need For A Flat Tax,” I humbly disagree. Your argument seems more centered on the need for tax reform, or rather, tax simplification, on which I think we can all agree is much needed. Well, perhaps the “tax specialists, the anointed priests of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and top law firms” might not agree, for they might otherwise be out of a job. (I jest, partially, although the conspiracy theorist in me makes me wonder. . . .)
For me, a flat tax rate over-simplifies the matter. My guess is that a flat tax would lower the tax rate on the wealthy and raise it on middle and lower income classes. That’s food off the table for the poor, and a used car instead of a new car for the middle class. While a progressive tax rate may not be fair, it seems to me to be the best solution to a complex problem.
On the other hand, I whole-heartedly agree a simplification of the tax code would level the playing field as to the use and abuse of tax breaks and loopholes.
-Ron Flores
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Ron, if I could wiggle my nose and create a more equitable tax program, I would exempt the first $70,000 of earnings per year. I would also exempt all military personnel. A flat tax is the more equitable form of taxation. No deductions. You earn $1,000,000 you pay taxes on $930,000. if the rate is 17% you pay $158,100, and so on…Of course there is the compliance issue and I suspect the cheating would be rampant. It would not lower taxes for the wealthy…they have used the existing tax code rather efficiently I suspect! The lower class would pay zero in taxes and the middle class should pay less in as much as the first $70,000 would be exempt. Our tax code is ridiculous….we need reform and simplification. All the hangers on will ,of course , be against anything that will rob them of revenue and jobs, including our government employees.
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