General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy I support a graduate tax.
Two things that I believe:
1) Access to university should be limited by academic ability, not ability to pay.
2) Taxing the (mostly poor) people who don't go to university to subsidise the (mostly rich) people who do is regressive and unfair.
I think the way to square this circle is for the state to fund university education, but for those who benefit from that to subsequently pay income tax at a higher level than the rest of the populace.
So you can go to university resting assured that if you don't go on to get a decent job, it won't have cost you much, and while if you do subsequently become rich you'll end up having paid a great deal for it, you'll still have become rich, and you would have been less likely to if you hadn't gone.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)If you receive benefits from society, no matter what they are, you make more money. So why not just assume that the more you make, the more you've benefited from what society offers, whether education or anything else? Then you just tax people who make more money, and tax the higher the more they make. Which is just regular old graduated marginal rate income tax.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)Instead of the false assumption that the more you make, the more you've benefited from what society offers, whether education or anything else, we should make the true assumptions that
a) a subsidised university education is a significant, measurable benefit.
b) receiving a university education correlates positively with being well off, and so if anything the raw cost is more likely to be an underestimate than an overestimate of the correlation between having gone to university and amount of benefit.
Johonny
(20,851 posts)Even if you start a company with a high school diploma and make billions, likely thousands of college graduates help you out along the way. A progressive tax system is vastly more popular and fair than an archaic graduate tax system. The system would seem to be vastly regressive as many degrees don't earn nearly the same as others although they do benefit society...
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)Let's go for a 60% young earth creationist nation! 40% is way too snooty ivory tower book-larnin' elitist for us!
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)You are taxed if and only if you graduate from a university? What if you get a degree in anthropology or medieval left-handed monks? Any of the many very fascinating majors that don't lead to good jobs? What if you never graduate from University but wind up making billions of dollars? Bill Gates comes to mind here.
Public universities and colleges should be free or very low cost for the first six years you attend. If you take longer than that to get a degree, you pay. Graduate school should also be not very expensive, and with a realistic time limit imposed.
Meanwhile, a graduated income tax is always a good idea.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)And in most circumstances, it's much worse than any actual tax out there.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)There is one practical difference, and one psychological.
The practical difference is that the amount you pay scales radically with your future earnings. In principal, debt repayments could do that to; in practice, it's much harder to sell.
The psychological difference is that even though a debt you'll only have to pay off if you get rich may be functionally equivalent to a higher level of income tax, it seems to be much more of a disincentive to apply to university.
hunter
(38,317 posts)I'm for free lifetime education for everyone, paid education for anyone in fields where there are shortages (primary care medicine, teachers in rough urban neighborhoods, family planning worldwide...) and a steeply progressive income tax that makes it impossible for anyone to become so wealthy they can corrupt the democratic political process, or for anyone to be left behind illiterate, without good food, safe shelter, and appropriate medical care.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)You make more money, you pay more taxes. Lets not complicate the tax code any more than it already is.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Too complicated currently.
ProfessorGAC
(65,067 posts)We already have a progressive tax system. Just make it progressive with a few more tiers and that's it. This idea nearly has the effect of stigmatizing the educated.