{"id":553,"date":"2014-04-03T19:58:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T19:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/04\/should-we-tax-the-childless.html"},"modified":"2014-04-03T19:58:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T19:58:00","slug":"should-we-tax-the-childless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/04\/should-we-tax-the-childless.html","title":{"rendered":"Should we tax the childless?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That was the topic of a click-bait Slate article<\/a>, \u201d Tax the Childless; We should slash taxes on parents by jacking them up for nonparents,\u201d which inspired a NYT Room for Debate debate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The gist of the initial argument is something we\u2019ve all seen before: \u00a0parents bear a double burden, not only paying Social Security taxes for today\u2019s elderly, but doing the hard, and costly, work of producing the next generation, who will, someday, provide the labor force to take care of the next generation\u2019s elderly, and who will, quite simply, keep the economy functional in the future. <\/p>\n

And most other developed nations do have some kind of \u201cchild benefit,\u201d and this is less politically-charged than maternity leave benefits, or subsidized or free child care, because it\u2019s universally provided rather than favoring parents who one choice or another in the debate over working or stay-at-home moms.<\/p>\n

But \u2014 let\u2019s face it \u2014 those countries with generous benefits for parents don\u2019t do so because they want to be \u201cfair\u201d but because they\u2019re trying to prop up an unsustainably-low birth rate. \u00a0This is not a problem we face: \u00a0whether because the poor have insufficient access to contraception, as progressives might argue, or because we\u2019re simply a more child-friendly culture in general, we have no shortage of babies, and large-scale immigration is growing our population even more. \u00a0Pragmatically, we don\u2019t need to encourage people to have more children \u2014 and, besides, the natalist policies elsewhere don\u2019t seem to make that much difference, anyway. <\/p>\n

On top of which, the Room for Debate pieces focus on the poor, and the fact that poor folks need help whether they have a dozen children, the idealized two, or none at all. \u00a0But they kind of miss the point, anyway: \u00a0several of the authors take the approach of, \u201clet me tell you about what I want instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyway \u2014<\/p>\n

my initial thought was, \u201cI don\u2019t accept my kids whining about unfairness; why should we structure taxes around the approach that it\u2019s unfair for parents to have more hardship than the childless?\u201d \u00a0And various of the commenters (when they weren\u2019t railing about breeders overpopulating the world) pointed out that punitive tax rates for the childless would also ensnare those who are trying to become financially settled before having children. \u00a0But, sure, I\u2019d love to fill my kitchen with fancy small appliances and go on vacations in the off-season, and I\u2019m producing the next generation, and making sure they do their homework and practice the piano, so maybe all you childless slackers who can watch PG 13 movies whenever you want should pay me.<\/p>\n

But then I started thinking about the fact that when it comes to the wealthy, we very much want taxes to be \u201cfair.\u201d \u00a0We\u2019re always talking about the wealthy paying \u201ctheir fair share.\u201d \u00a0So, if we are going to have to raise taxes on the wealthy to balance the budget, maybe children should factor into it. <\/p>\n

And \u2014 I\u2019m just putting this out there, as an idea, and just a shell of one, not fleshed out \u2014 what if our tax brackets were based, not on married vs. single, but on whether you\u2019ve got children, so that, at the upper income levels, childless individuals and couples take a bigger tax bit at a lower level than child-ed families?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That was the topic of a click-bait Slate article, \u201d Tax the Childless; We should slash taxes on parents by jacking them up for nonparents,\u201d which inspired a NYT Room for Debate debate. 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