4/18/2005 09:10:00 PM|||Dave|||Although we probably won't see serious discussion of a flat tax in our lifetime (given the current political climate surrounding entitlements in this country), there's a fine editorial in The Economist ("The Flat-Tax Revolution") that clears up several mischaracterizations surrounding what such a tax structure would portend. The wealthy, for example, would pay about as much as they do now.

The recently-freed economies of Eastern Europe, who have bathed in libertarianism in the past decade and who have implemented flat tax structures, are flourishing relative to those whom haven't (save Russia, which is a mess of a country right now).

There's the additional philosophical rationale for a flat tax structure: Everyone, regardless of income class, would feel a bit of the sting in their wallet every time a great new government program is proposed or expanded. As is human nature, such would prompt all citizens to scrutinize government programs much closer, asking themselves and their legislators, "Do we really need this program?".

As we have it structured now, there are huge factions of Americans who receive benefits and entitlements they pay little or nothing for, while other factions of Americans are forced to carry the entire burden. This has bred the Democratic Party of today: promise group A the world and tell them that group B will pay for it. The factionalism that such an approach engenders was exactly what Madison warned about in the Federalist Paper #10.|||111387304527046340|||Flat Tax Revolution