Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: re: prejudice and then further rambling Message-ID: <4191@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Wed, 8-Aug-84 14:25:28 EDT Article-I.D.: utzoo.4191 Posted: Wed Aug 8 14:25:28 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 8-Aug-84 14:25:28 EDT References: <156@utecfa.UUCP>, <5011@utcsrgv.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 20 Ralph is right. Remember that the purpose of taxation is to raise money. The government's guiding principle is NOT giving people a fair break, but getting every possible penny out of them without causing a revolution. An appearance of fairness is useful, since it reduces the chance that any specific group will feel exploited enough to revolt, but that's all. The argument that old-style averaging benefitted the economy by putting more money in the hands of people just joining the work force seems weak to me. One could equally contend that these are likely to be the folks who are on relatively low salaries with minimal job security and hence would be reluctant to make major investments right away. (Note that I'm not claiming this point of view is necessarily correct, just pointing out that the question is more complex than it looks and intuition is not necessarily sufficient to yield the right answer.) Yes, I am one of the people who got hurt by the change in averaging. -- "Taxation is theft." Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry