I feel so sorry for those millionaires...

The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial ($) today about the income tax burden in the US, arguing that silly liberals like me don't appreciate how much the rich pay in taxes:

"Imagine a banquet attended by 100 random Americans. If the bill for the meal is distributed like the income tax, the richest person in the room is required to pay one-third of the tab.... The three richest people are charged as much as the other 97. And the 30 or so lowest-income people in the room - those with a family income of $30,000 or less - pay nothing and eat for free."

This is already a "highly progressive" system, the editorial argues.

Before people get all shocked at how much our poor, poor rich citizens have to pay in taxes, please participate in another thought experiment.

Imagine the same banquet, with 100 random Americans and 100 plates of food. The way income is distributed in the US, that "unlucky" one person is eating 13 plates of food himself. The richest 18 people are sharing as much food at the other 82. And those 30 "free-riders" are stuck sharing 6 plates between them.

Income is pretty unevenly distributed in this country. Granted our income tax system is already progressive, but that does not imply injustice, and that certainly does not imply that a more progressive system would not be better for the country as a whole.

"Taxes are the price we pay for civilization," said Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Also, Peter Singer has some nice things to say about taxes, including that he could morally justify a much higher tax rate than is currently in place today.