The Queen's words rang in my ear -- not literally, of course.
But I couldn't get what she said out of my head. "The people are revolting."
Sure, that's as clear as the bell for recess. But why? I decided to ask
Lorna, my partner. She's lived on this island all her life. If anyone
knew what the people really thought, she would.
People with less income complain that a Regressive tax system, like they have in Outer Magnolia, is too hard on them. And people with higher income complain that their tax burden is too heavy with a Progressive tax system like the folks in Dead Man's Gulch have.
It's a mess!
Here in the capital we have our own type of tax. It's neither regressive
nor progressive, it's called a Proportional Tax, and the higher your
income, the more money you pay in taxes. Under this system, everyone pays the
same percentage -- or proportion -- of his or her income in taxes.
In the United States, the combination of Federal, state, and local taxes
creates an overall tax system that is a complex mix of different types of
taxes (e.g., income, sales, excise, and property). The resulting combination is that taxpayers over a wide range of income levels end up paying roughly the same percentage of their income in taxes. While no single tax is proportional, the combination of different taxes creates a roughly proportional system.
