Taxes: hiding the goodies for the wealthy

Some years ago I wrote an op-ed piece for our local paper where I suggested that we divide up our current tax system into two separate systems: one a tax system, and the other called the "Office of Giving Money Away."

The tax form would be three lines with no deductions or credits for having children, owning a home, paying alimony, and so forth.

And people who wanted money for having 10 children, owning a palace with a million dollar mortgage, or paying $100,000 a year in alimony, would apply for government money and receive a check.

The idea was obviously for fun, but the object lesson is real: how long do you think the current tax system would last if average people realized that renters get nothing, homeowners with mortgages of less than $100,000 might save a few hundred bucks, and people with $10 million homes save tens of thousands on their taxes?

If the government wrote wealthy people a check for $50,000 every year and gave nothing to poor renters, the system would collapse overnight. Instead, the current system festers on because the grossly unfair disparities are effectively hidden from view.