A flat rate is like a consumption tax, it hurts the low earners more than High earners. Take fuel tax, or prepared food tax for example. Do you think it is fair for the owner of a luxury car to pay the same tax as the owner of a utility or service vehicle which he may need to survive? Do you think that the individual who can barely pay for a pair of scrambled eggs pay the same tax as the individual who could buy the whole restaurant? I don’t. And as a matter of recognized justice, states have devised a list of products that are not subject to sale tax like most medical items or groceries. Why have they not come up with a different fuel tax rate based on a car rating?

To me, one objective of a progressive tax is to reduce the gap in earnings from the rich and the poor. I, for one, am against placing more values on capital over human values. I am also against charities. If the rich can give to charities of their choice,–primarily as a way to reduce their income taxes– and in many cases become a source of corruption – take the Clinton or trump foundations—they can pay more in taxes and let the state do a more general redistribution of income.  But there are also those rich people who feel compelled to give back to the communities where they grew or where they went to school though fine and noble I still think the state can do a better job of redistributing this excess income. Left to the individual, one community or one school or one institution may receive much more than needed while others receive none. 

Occasio repeats a fact: Corporate profits at a low tax rate are distributed and not kept within the corporation for more investments. While a progressive tax rate is an incentive to the corporation to keep reinvesting it instead of distributing it. More investment, we know, would bring more employment and consequently more income taxes.  

I don’t believe in trickle down economy and there is no proof that it as ever really worked. 

I think it boils down to a matter of trust. Do we trust the government can do or should be in a position to do a better redistribution of wealth or to we think the individual is better equipped to do that? I think, and strongly believe, that it is the responsibility of the state to insure better health care for all, better higher education for all, better living condition for all during one’s productive age and after retirement. 

And this is because of my belief that government has a better knowledge of what is needed and where it is needed than any individual or corporation and that it is the responsibility of the state to provide for basic needs like security, education, health, transportation, communication, retirement. It is also the responsibility of the state to reduce social tension, social injustices. Whereas the conservatives think that less government is best, I believe that, while preserving liberties and freedom, government intervention is required to provide a decent way of living to all its citizen, it should work for all and not just for a few.