[cpursley]

> A flat tax rate is not a good idea whatsoever

Tell this to the nations which have successfully implemented a flat tax:

http://www.economist.com/node/3860731

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_tax#Countries_that_have_f...

It's ironic that a number of former Soviet countries have moved on to the flat tax, while the west has a progressive income tax (#2 plank of the Communist Manifesto).

[SimbaOnSteroids]

Idk about you but I can't think of many former soviet block countries that have a healthy distribution of wealth between working, middle, and upper classes. Furthermore the list of countries given there are not places where you want to be poor.

[cpursley]

I don't disagree. These countries often have systemic issues that go deeper than any one tax system can resolve.

[croon]

Are you saying that flat tax is good, but that all countries that have implemented it coincidentally have other economic issues that are wholly unrelated?

[sokoloff]

What is the list of countries where one would want to be poor?

[SimbaOnSteroids]

Obviously there isn't a list where you'd want to be poor , but I'd definetly rather be poor living in Sweden than poor living in Russia.

[sol_remmy]

ex-Soviet countries like Romania and Poland are definitely on their away up.

Compare them to slowly declining western European countries like Italy and Spain.

[sbalea]

Romania and Poland were never soviets. Communist, yes. Behind the Iron Curtain, yes. Members of the Warsaw Pact, yes (Poland is kind of obvious on this). But never soviets.