Allegory
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The
bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their
bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something
like this.
The first four men -- the poorest -- would pay
nothing; the fifth would pay $1, the sixth would pay
$3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18,and
the tenth man -- the richest -- would pay$59.
That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner
in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy
with the arrangement -- until one day, the owner threw
them a curve (in tax language-- a tax cut). "Since
you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going
to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now
dinner for the ten only cost $80.00.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we
pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected.
They would still eat for free. But what about the
other six -- the paying customers? How could they
divvy
up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his
"fair share?"
The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.
But if they subtracted that from everybody's share,
then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up
being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner
suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's
bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to
work out the amounts each should pay.
And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched
in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the
ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of
$52 instead of his earlier $59. Each of the six was
better off than before. And the first four continued
to eat for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to
compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of
the $20," declared the sixth man, but he, pointing to
the tenth. "But he got $7!". "Yeah, that's right,"
exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too,
...It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!".
That's true!" shouted the seventh man, why should he
get $7 back when I got only $2?" The wealthy
get all the breaks!". Wait a minute," yelled the
first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything at
all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The
next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine
sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to
pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what
was very important. They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short
of paying the bill!