Many Americans complain that they are being over-taxed, even the President Donald Trump indicates that “With lower taxes on America’s middle class and businesses, we will see a new surge of economic growth and development.” However, author Ben Steverman in his article Sorry America, Your Taxes Aren’t High provides the analysis done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The analysis makes it possible for people to compare the tax of different countries. Steverman conveys that “the OECD measures what it calls the “tax wedge,” the gap between what a worker gets paid and what they actually spend or save” annually; he attaches some tables underneath, presents the ranking of the tax rates of workers. U.S. ranks the 25th place on the tax rate table for average single worker with no children as well as the table for average family with two children and one earner. To be more persuasive, the author puts a graph that compares only the U.S. tax burdens to the OECDaverage, which obviously points out that tax rate in U.S. is about 5% lower than the OECD average.
Instead of comparing to other countries, author Matthew Frankel argues the federal income taxes are not high by making a table with the highest federal income tax since year 1952 in the passage If You Think Taxes Are Too High, You Need To Read This. Even though the current top tax rate is higher than pervious years, looking at the table overall we can see “before 1987, the top income tax rates in the U.S. were significantly higher.” In addition, Frankel emphasizes that “the top income tax rate was only applied to the richest Americans” in those days; which in other words, the majority of Americans did not pay such a high rate even back in the time when the top federal income tax rate overall was pretty high.
Besides the math evidences behind the tax rate which convey the federal income tax is not high at all, the usages of the taxes are logical too. In the article A Closer Look: Where Does Your Tax Money Go?, the editor lists several areas where the citizens are paying money for. It includes health care expenses, social security, defense and international security assistance, etc. Some of them on the list may not seem applicable to every citizen, but the taxes the citizens pay definitely benefit them as well from my perspective. Government may use the tax to build better infrastructures to make it easier for citizens to get through multiple places; additionally, the taxes may assist local government to improve facilitates for various communities so to benefit the tax payers’ lives. Towards the end of this article, the editor mentions that some research yields the conclusion that Americans do “believe it’s worth the expense to support government involvement in so many areas of our lives,” therefore, there should not exist more complaint on the tax rate.
In all, instead of keep complaining, tax payers need to think more of the benefits they enjoy as a result of paying. Government would not take up money for no reason, for the payers may not feel satisfied if the government does nothing besides collecting money.
Image Source:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-11/sorry-america-your-taxes-aren-t-high
21st Century Citizenship 