31–40 of 109 posts
I never understood why taxes or similiar absolute points aren't gradients instead.
How about the even simpler fix of not having phase-outs? This generally works: the cost of a subsidy generally does not increase as the recipient pays more taxes, so the higher total tax paid by a higher-income person will easily pay for the cost of a subsidy. And giving higher-income/wealthier people the same subsidies as poor people may help them appreciate the ways in which the subsidies are helpful and the ways in which they suck, which can help the whole system improve.
(2020)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think because the gradient is simply too confusing for laypeople to understand. Even for a simple system like US social security that has a gradient. For every $2 you make over the limit, you lose $1 in benefits. I've heard countless times misconceptions of people thinking they'd be losing money (as in literally having less money net) by working.
I agree, but almost everyone today can use a computer or smartphone. They can type in their income, and the computer can calculate it, providing them an average number of what their percentage of actual taxable income was- I think Turbo Tax and other software might do something like this. They don't have to understand how it works to do their own taxes.
I never understood why taxes or similiar absolute points aren't gradients instead.
[ EDIT: Since the undated article is actually from Feb 2020, predating the expansion of federal health insurance subsidies, I withdraw everything I said below. ] ---------------------------------- The opening story is fabricated and/or bullshit. Last year (2025) there was no limit on income for health insurance subsidies. That ended for this year, but last year there would have been no reason for anyone who knew what…
[1] https://cleartax.in/s/marginal-relief-surcharge
Another place where thresholding is misplaced is minors (below the age of 18 years) being subject to different laws (this is for India at least), e.g., seriously different punishments for crimes like homicide or rape. I have heard that crime groups then purposefully involve minors, push the blames on them if caught, and effectively get away for much less.
I never understood why taxes or similiar absolute points aren't gradients instead.