One often hears the liberal demand for taxpayers to pay their “fair share”. What is a fair share?
I have many, many times observed a dialog between a prominent Conservative and a prominent Liberal. It frequently comes down to a dialog that goes like this:
Liberal: we just want the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Conservative: what is that fair share?
Liberal: generalities and platitudes but no statement of what is a fair share.
In fact in some cases, when the Liberal was questioned if a specific number would be a “fair share”, they said yes, only to be embarrassed when told that the current rates are higher than that supposedly fair share.
I would love to see any Liberal statement of what is a fair share. Another response by the Liberal is to state tax rates during previous time periods, such as during the Clinton administration. The problem with any such statement is that it mistakes marginal tax rates for effective tax rates.
A marginal tax rate of 90% is irrelevant if the effective tax rate is 30%. In the past when we had higher marginal rates, the effective rates were not that much different from what they are now, due to “loopholes”. They always want to go back to 90% tax rates, but never back to the associated loopholes.
I would respond to the whole “fair share” argument to say that paying zero percent is not paying your fair share, and that everyone should have some skin in the game if you want fairness.