Fairness in Taxes

I commend Father Alfred LoPinto for his column “Tax Policies Rule Out a Kinder, Gentler Nation” (Op-Ed Page, April 30). He points out and gives statics showing how the tax policies increasingly favor the wealthy and increase the tax burden of the rest of the people.

The purpose of good government is to establish and promote fairness for all its people. If we judge our government on a basis of fairness to all people, it must fall far short of being classified as “good.” Adam Smith, who wrote his “Wealth of Nations” many years ago, set the principle of fair taxation that “Taxes should be levied according to the ability to pay.” This can only mean that individuals should be taxed according to their wealth.

Wealth is the only true measure of “the ability to pay.” A wealth-only tax is fair. It is right because people enjoy the benefit of living in our country according to their wealth. A tax on each person’s net worth would be taking the place of all other taxes. There is no other tax that is even remotely fair. Consider these advances:

1. People who have nothing, who are probably in debt, would pay no taxes. They would have a chance to get out of poverty and not be a burden on the government nor the rest of us.

2. People in the middle-income group would pay about the same amount of taxes they do now.

3. The wealthy would pay more--a fair share of taxes--which they in no way do now.

A net worth tax seems simplistic, and it certainly is when you think of the complexity and extent of the tax system, the mountain of complex laws, the bureaus, the offices, the agents, etc. we are subjected to now. Fairness is usually simple. The government spends a great deal of time and money devising and changing the tax system. This gives the government opportunities to extend favors and punishment, a power it should not have. The rules of a net worth tax, once fairly established, would seldom, if ever, have to be amended, eliminating the unfair threat.

A 1% tax on the wealth of people would produce revenue enough for the entire obligations and operation of government, and in time retire the enormous, threatening national debt. It is unfair to future generations to have to deal with a huge national debt.

Fair taxation is a step on the long road to fairness in all things from which our government has strayed. We must exert whatever influence we can muster to put it right.

BERNARD E. WATERHOUSE

Pasadena