Reply #191: regressive taxation [View All]

[William Z. Foster]

There should be no confusion about this, and should be no controversy.

The following definitions of "regressive taxation" come mostly from business and financial agency sources, and can hardly be considered to be biased in favor of progressive taxation.

Regressive taxation - good for the wealthy, bad for the working class. The investors themselves are all quote clear about that, and even grant my position more respect than you do. Regressive taxation "free more funds for investment" - as all welfare for the wealthy does. But even the investor class is willing to admit that "a regressive tax is often considered socially and politically unacceptable." They grant legitimacy to my position, which you do not.

As Democrats, I would hope that we would all consider regressive taxation as "socially and politically unacceptable. Otherwise, why be Democrats? The investment class already has a party, the Republicans, representing them and fighting for regressive taxation. They don't need two parties fighting for their interests.

"A tax that has a rate that declines as the amount to be taxed increases. In terms of income, federal and state taxation of cigarettes is regressive because low-income smokers pay a higher rate of taxation in terms of their income than high-income smokers do. A system of regressive taxation tends to free more funds for investment because high-income individuals tend to save a greater portion of their income. However, a regressive tax is often considered socially and politically unacceptable."

http://www.yourdictionary.com/business/regressive-tax

"Taxation that takes a larger percentage of a lower-income and a smaller percentage of a higher income. For example, a tax on the basic necessities (which form a larger percentage of the expenditure of the lower income population) is a regressive tax. See also progressive tax."

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/regressive-tax.html

"A tax burden that falls more heavily on those with low income. Contrast with progressive tax and proportional tax. Sales taxes are regressive taxes if imposed on all sales, because the straight percentage imposed on all sales takes away a higher percentage of a low income household's available income.Some states attempt to lessen the regressive effect of sales taxes by exempting purchases of food and medicine."

http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/regressive+taxation

"A tax that takes a larger percentage of the income of low-income people than of high-income people."

http://www.investorwords.com/4138/regressive_tax.html

"A tax on income in which the proportion of tax paid relative to income decreases as income increases."

http://economics.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-regressivetax.htm