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Some beleive that the more you make in income, the more you "should" be taxed. Under such a system, typically referred to as a progressive tax strategy, your tax rate increases incrementally as your income rises. For example, the first $120000 in income gets taxes at 20%. Any income that you made between $120001 and $200000 gets taxed at 30%. Then, any income above $200001 gets taxed at 40%. The supporters of this strategy tend to liberal, and beleive that the rates should increase because its only "fair" that thsoe who make more should have to pay more in tax. From that point, the subjective arguments abound over what is fair, endless tweaks to the tax code ensue as a product of lobbying and politicians either taking care of special interests or trying to use the tax code to influence individual or corproate behavior or engage in social engineering via the tax code.
Others believe that any income should be taxed at the same rate. They believe that there is a concept of equal treatment under the law that also applies to tax law. They believe that a single rate supports a revenue system that is far less arbitrary, far more predictable and would encourage economic activity be encouraging capital creation and utilization. They believe that a single tax rate would therefore be stimulative, where a tered system that changes with the political winds puts a damper on economic activity.
So, the concept of what is a fair shar depends on your perspective. As you might guess, I subscribe to the single rate philosophy, as it does a better job of removing subjectivity and arbitrary decision-making from the equation.
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