I sort of agree with both sides of the argument, you can't tax a minimal income earner to rest, or why should he bother working in the first place? You end up teaching people that the dole is a better option as it ain't worth the hard work for the pittance.
At the same time I don't see why someone who's worked his arse off to make his family wealthy should have to pay exorbitant taxation merely because he has become successful.
The fairest system in my opinion would have the first however many dollars totally tax free (tax free threshold but it should be a more reasonable threshold), until the income hits the "humbly but comfortably" level of income for a family (based on individual income at the cost of raising a family, no reason dual-income earning families should be penalised for both partners working by taxing them both as a combined income, again that would just promote a "why bother" atbreastude), after that particular amount of income a flat tax rate for everyone for every dollar beyond that dollar.
Such a system would basically say "You all earn what you need to get your family through life without paying tax, that's the money you need, after that you all pay an equal percentage of tax on the additional dollars". Fairest way I can see to do it.
