>This is not a rich-hating thing. The wealthy can afford to pay more.
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>Really? How much more? What I do not understand is how you can believe that, in a free society, if you want to work 18 hours a day to accumulate wealth, that the governemnt should be able to say "We are taking more away from you because you already have too much.
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>The crux of it is I do not believe we should as a matter of policy redistribute wealth from the middle class to the already wealthy.
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>Ah, but you think that it is fine to redistribute wealth from the middle class to the poor (and/or lazy). You make this kind of statement quite often but with nothing to back it up. Please provide evidence that wealth is being redistributed from the middle class to the wealthy.
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>You also have not addressed my statement that everyone should pay some federal income tax. Do you think that it is fair that almost 50% of the population does not pay anything?

Further to what Marcia said - if we, as a policy, feel it is OK to redustribute from the wealthy to the middle class....what incentive is there for anyone to want to move upward? And why WOULDN'T everyone pay some taxes - doesn't everyone utilize the services that the taxes purchase (defense, roads, environmental, safety, etc)?? In fact, there is a case to be made that the lower class uses MORE of these services! A flat tax structure helps to eliminate much of the animus between the so-called "classes" - everyone pays, everyone benefits.