Fairness and a graduated income tax

On Jan. 30, the Daily Herald published an article from guest columnist Ralph Matire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, touting the virtues of a graduated income tax for Illinois. Mr. Matire wrote an article on the same subject in September 2018. In both articles Mr. Matire claims that a graduated income tax is "fair" tax policy. He supports his position by citing Adam Smith from The Wealth of Nations: "(…tax policy in a capitalist economy should) remedy inequality of riches as much as possible, by relieving the poor and burdening the rich."

Unfortunately, Adam Smith did not write that phrase. It was written by Lord Henry Home Kanes in Sketches of the History of Man. The phrase was one of six general rules of taxation written by Lord Kanes and cited, without comment, as a footnote in The Wealth of Nations. Contrary to Mr. Matire's assertion and those of other graduated tax proponents, Adam Smith did not support disproportionate tax rates.

Basing tax policy on a political party's subjective and arbitrary definition of "fair" will allow it to create a tax structure that will please the majority of its members' constituents and, thereby, ensure their re-elections. But, will the targets of the disproportionate tax rates consider them to be fair? In many human transactions, proportional and fair are synonymous. Why not in taxation?

Randy Harris

St. Charles