Fair – the meaning of

It seems to be a quite empty word. I looked it up in Webster’s and found that it means equitable and that equitable means fair. Thanks a lot.

The meaning of fair is, of course, important because it is currently being claimed that America’s wealthy are not paying their fair share of taxes. I don’t know what that means.

I suspect that at some point, early in life, most of us experienced an event that gave us a sense of fairness. Perhaps being forced to give half of a candy bar to a sibling, letting someone else choose the TV channel half of the time, or taking equal turns on a see-saw.

So how does the fairness concept apply to taxes for individuals that have different earning levels? Here is what I think would be fair. Everyone should pay an amount of tax such that after paying this tax they have the same remaining purchasing power as every other American.

I don’t, of course, believe nor advocate that at all. But what I do believe is that we should drop the fairness pretense and simply admit that we want to tax the rich because, to quote Willie Sutton, “Because that’s where the money is”.