Tax Day Special

Thought I'd get around to the whole 'reasons why taxing income is a bad idea in the first place' post. So here it is.

1. If part of the entire tax concept is to do some redistribution of wealth, then why not tax wealth, rather than income. Taxing income just gives an advantage to old, ossified money (which, in sufficient quantities, can provide more than enough tax-free income to live extravagently on) over new money.

2. General economics says that taxing anything will get you less of it. But we really want income-generating economic activity, considerably more than we want, say, wealth, or consumption, being the other possible candidates for revenue taxation.

3. Really, the government has no business knowing how much money any given person makes. So getting rid of a system that requires it to be that fantastically nosy about everyone would be a massive blow for privacy.