I'm not sure what makes a tax structure economical; that it's efficient, streamlined...
According to rawls, "Justice As Fairness", what makes a tax structure equitable is that it gives just as much benefit to the least advantaged group as to the most advantaged group, further that any added benefit given to the most advantaged has to be proportionally delivered to the least.
Flat taxes don't meet this requirement as they negatively and regressively affect the least advantaged group because the amount paid decreases proportionately as the amount taxed increases; the poor end up paying a disproportionately larger percentage of their income to taxes.
being a hardcore, ultra-conservative, somewhere to the right of buchanan on policy and Limbaugh in hypocrisy, my first thought was, "fuck ‘em, shoulda worked harder, been smarter or at least lucky", but then inevitably, i go all st. francis and start to backslide to that whole being a benevolent caretaker of the weak and disenfranchised.
I'm not sure if there is a "right" answer; it's possible that equity and economy can't be adequately compared, the prior being a concept and the latter, a condition.
