The pain level for paying taxes should be uniform from top to bottom.

...because everyone has different pain thresholds

$45K a year for a single mom with four kids and no health care is a *lot* different than $45K a year for a family with one working spouse, one childcare spouse and a job with health care. Same income, but the impact of a %10 income tax is quite a bit different

I make *about* the same as I did several years ago. but back then I had one vehicle and I telecommuted. Now I live in a differentcity than I work; so I need to maintian two vehicles (including insurance) and I spend close to $200 a month on gas. My income has not changed, my pain threshold has changed. My income is also artificially lowererd because I spent 4 months unemployed a few years back and ran up very high credit debts paying mortgage and utilities on credit. I'm still paying those off. So my 'income' in terms of what I can actually use is lower than my 'income' in terms of a paycheck



That's where such plans are doomed to failure. As soon as you start playing games with 'everyone should have the same pain' then it becomes a nightmare of trying to equalize everyone's situation fairly, and the bereaucracy to do that becomes unbearbly heavy