gross national hapiness index

[kandrathe]

Or you could just make the income tax system progressive, which is the same thing with one less step, and no "card of shame".

Well, what are food stamps? The debit card wouldn't need to be neon red/white/blue and play the star spangled banner. And... I don't see it as the same. The idea would be that everyone pays the government the same lower tax rates, except those who are poor and need relief. The current scheme is to attempt to extract as much from the income side as possible, but because of special interests the laws eventually erode to exclude more and more of those with the money to buy influence. What ends up happening repeatedly is that the middle carries almost all the burden, since they don't have lobbyists in DC.

The problem I have with our current Progressive scheme is that our multi tiered system masks enough complexity to hide their intricate corruption. I'm in favor of making it really, really simple with only exceptions for poor people.