Let's Go All Out for True and Complete Fairness

Many Americans apparently believe that its okay to impose higher taxes on the rich . . . the small minority who earn the highest incomes. The thinking seems to be that it's okay to take more from them because they can afford to pay more.

But that's just tinkering at the edges and will not achieve anything meaningful. Were we to seize everything earned by the billionaires and millionaires who are the current targets of political opportunists, the looters would inflict great damage on the nation's economy and still not collect enough to significantly reduce either the debt that the government has accumulated or the budget deficit resulting from excessive spending.

That's not the goal of the demagogues crying out for "fairness." Their goal is to win the allegiance of the envious who disguise their envy of those better off than themselves as merely the pursuit of what is "fair."

So let's stop tinkering on the fringes by permitting politicians and everyone else define for themselves what is fair, and institute real fairness and an objective standard for it.

To do this, we should have the good folks in charge of our government determine the nation's average income and then have the IRS collect from everyone getting more than that amount the entire amount in excess of the average. By definition, those earning more than the average can afford to give up the excess and they should pay more because the can afford to do so. The collected sums then could be distributed among those earning less than the average amount. This would result in true fairness and equality. Everyone would have exactly the same, and the government then could impose a flat tax to meet its budget needs.
 
Who could complain about such a system? It's fairness would be obvious, complete, and true.

Furthermore, there would be no reason to stop there, and true and complete fairness requires that we not do so.  One of the problems with taxing incomes is that doing so doesn't reach true wealth. 

Consequently, what is needed is a determination of the average net worth -- the difference between the value of assets net of indebtedness -- of the nation's entire population. Once that determination is made the government could go about seizing anything and everything in excess of the average owned by any individual and distribute the collected assets among the less wealthy, thus bringing everything and everyone to an equal level. True great and fair balancing.

Of course, human nature being what it is, some people would rise and others would fall going forward.Therefore, fairness will require the process of balancing of incomes and assets to be repeated annually. But that's a minor administrative difficulty that differs only slightly from the similar burdens of our current income tax system.   The nation's current tax system shows that such minor inconveniences can and should be  overcome to achieve real and complete fairness.