Back to Basics

One argument against a tax shift is that the change would violate the spirit of the progressive income tax. It sounds plausible, but in reality the opposite is true. If Congress kept the income tax for higher incomes and shifted part of the rest to polluting natural resources, the result would be the kind of system that early advocates of the income tax intended.

The income tax grew out of decades of turmoil as the U.S. evolved from an agrarian economy to an urban one in the years before World War I. Robber barons still rode high. The gap between rich and poor was the widest in American history. And as the country prepared for the first time to enter a European war, a major new funding source was needed. President Woodrow Wilson proposed an income tax, but on whom would it fall?

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