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GLASS Economic Cartoons Study this cartoon and review the section entitled "What Are Taxes before answering the questions below. beginning on page 359 FORWARD WITH THE YLNY TAX! ADQUE TIVES ! ABOLIGHT TAX. UN HANORE ! PLAT TAX! YEAH! CHAT 2. 3. 4. Pyup NUM SOAK THE MIDDLE CLASS! Now SASS WTA MAUTE FORWARD THE NAM - W BN EARNT- Copyright © 1997 by Austin American Statesman Reprinted with permission of Universal Syndicate. All rights reserved 1. Whar political party does the speaker on the television belong to? How can you tell? 2. Synthesizing Information (a) What is the proportional, or flat, tax? (b) How does it differ from the income tax Americans now pay? 3. What do economists say are the four characteristics of a good tax? Prentice Hall, Inc 4. Drawing Inferences How does the elephant on TV suggest that the flat tax has the good tax characteristics of economy and simplicity? 5. Recognizing Points of View What characteristic of a good tax does the cartoonist think the flat tax lacks? Explain your answer. ( 14 Chapter 14 Economic Cartoons

Answer 1

1. The speaker is most likely republican. This is because Republican party supports Flat tax far more than Democrats.

2. A flat tax is where people if all income pay same rate of tax, for example 15%, no matter how much or little they earn. Currently Americans pay proportional tax, where the tax rate increases with income.

3. Four characteristics of a good tax are: certainty, equity, simplicity and efficiency.
Certainty means every tax payer must be certain how much tax they need to pay, when its due and how it should be paid.
Equity means that tax must be disturbed fairly i.e. that no person pays too much or too little in taxes.
Simplicity means that tax laws should be understood by everybody and keeping records, preparing tax forms and payment of tax on schedule is also easy.
Efficiency means spending less money and time on collection and paying taxes.

4. The elephant suggests that tax filing will be so easy that it could be done in a postcard. This shows it will be simple (easy to file) and efficient with very low fees.

5. The cartoonist think it lacks equity since the elephant is saying soak the middle class and forward with the rich. This means flat tax will be tougher on middle class while easier on the rich.