Letter Touting the Flat Tax Was Ridiculous
I must admit that I initially thought that Troy Hyde’s letter (“A
Fan of Taxing Rich People Less Makes His Case,” Mailbag, July 30) was
an excellent mockery of the flat-tax position. I thought, “What a great
job he’s doing of showing how ridiculous the flat-tax position is
simply by explaining it.” Then I realized he was serious.
He writes, “By taking away the ‘penalties’ of success, a flat-rate
income tax provides incentives to succeed. For example, if I work hard
to make $2,000 a year, it is taxed at 5 percent; if I work harder to
make $4,000, it is taxed at 10 percent. Where is the incentive to work
harder, create jobs, etc.?”
Really? Last time I checked, the incentive to work harder is that
extra $1,700 you’d make after taxes. Does he really think that the poor
would choose not to earn an additional $1,700, because they’d be
penalized by an additional $200 in taxes? Really? It’s too bad we can’t
ask Mr. Hyde; presumably, he’s in the lowest tax bracket to avoid such
horrendous penalties.
Brian Hallmark
Claim: The Giving Tree Was Cited, in Part, for Helping Upward Bound
There is much, much more to the story about The Giving Tree (“Doing
Too Much?” Aug. 6).
Do you know why they had the violation in April? Because I had my
students from the Upward Bound Program (who are disadvantaged students;
we help them in high school to do well so they can succeed in college
and in life) do a community-service project for The Giving Tree, and
about 20 local businesses stepped up to help by donating materials and
labor amounting to more than $100,000 so that we could fix up four of
the homes for the homeless mothers and their children, teenagers, the
disabled and dying (who had been thrown out of hospitals to the gutter
to die). Neighbors and city officials: That is a good thing, right?
During that short time in April, because only a couple of hotels
stepped up to provide shelter to these people while we fixed the homes,
the rest had to sleep outside … as homeless people do, because
without The Giving Tree, these homeless have nowhere else to go.
Apparently, the city wants to make sure no good deed goes unpunished. I
can only surmise that they would rather the homeless people were thrown
to the streets.
And have you met the homeless people? The Giving Tree has policies
against drug use and violence, etc.; they are providing shelter to good
people who got a bad deal somewhere in life and who have been turned
away by all the other agencies in town—because there was no more
room, not because they are bad people. Being in education, I have
worked with such people for more than 15 years, and I can tell you that
we are all just a step away from being homeless, like those who get
sick and lose all of their money, and those working for employers who
buy up companies, dump lifelong employees and run off with the
employees’ money.
I have worked now for a number of years with The Giving Tree,
because they use me to help their clients get into college. Yes, The
Giving Tree works hard at getting homeless people back into school and
into jobs; making your life better is impossible when you have no safe
roof over your head. I know many of their clients’ stories, and if we
turn away from those in need now, then someday, we will find that
nobody is left to help us when we are in need.
Lyn Olsen
Past Experience With Libby Wright Shows She’s Greedy,
Incapable
I’ve followed with interest the recent news regarding The Giving
Tree, run by Libby Wright. The articles brought back unpleasant
memories of my association with Ms. Wright when she ran an
assisted-living home for the elderly.
I took care of my elderly parents for several years, but eventually,
they were unable to continue living in their own home. I met Wright in
my search for a care home, and based on my initial impressions, I
placed my parents with her. Wright allied herself with an out-of-state
relative who had little understanding of my parents’ needs, due to
distance and infrequent visits. Yet Wright refused to respond to my
wishes for my parents’ care, although I was the closest relative
geographically. Even their doctors had a difficult time getting Wright
to cooperate. While the years of watching my parents age and decline
were difficult, it was made worse by Wright’s lack of professionalism,
lack of skill, hostility and extremely erratic and controlling
personality.
She promotes herself as a savior of the vulnerable, but, in fact,
she exploits them for her own aggrandizement and, when caught in
violation of laws and regulations, declares herself the victim of an
unfair system. In reading her quotes in the recent article about The
Giving Tree in the Tucson Weekly, the content of her comments
are “I,” “me,” and “my.” While she’s messing around with people’s
lives, her claim of knowing God’s will and tossing off Bible quotations
are shameless justifications for her marginal behavior.
The one regret I have from the years of elder parent care is putting
my parents into her incapable and greedy hands.
Suzanne Hesh
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.
To anyone who feels a flat tax is ridiculous:
Apparently you haven’t managed employees or come to grips with the very real psychology of ‘diminishing returns.’ I have managed employees for thirty years, and have repeatedly seen them turn down work because any additional earnings would be taxed at a higher rate. They clearly say that they won’t work additional hours for, say, $8 an hour after taxes when their regular pay is $10 ten dollars an hour after taxes. It’s more work for less pay, and reduces their average take home earnings per hour.
Imagine if the regressive tax proposal was a 10% tax on earnings up to $400 per week, and a 50% tax on any more than that. According to some, that would still be ok, because they would still be taking home half of their earnings over $400, and that would give them more.
Apparently the free market and the government don’t agree, by the way, hence the legal and practical requirement to pay overtime for additional work beyond 40 hours.
But that’s not the regressive tax proposal. What if we actually dealt in real numbers instead of making up ridiculous examples?
I don’t think many people making $10 an hour, or less than $21,000 a year, needs to worry about entering into a new tax bracket when they pick up a few extra hours.