Thomas Ostrem ch. 2 Question 2

The issues of the government's taxing policy will affect me in the near future when I will have a summer job and am trying to make money to pay for college and when I have a full time job and am trying to support my family. However, I will also want to be able to help out people who are less privileged than I am by supporting them with money from the government obtained through taxation. Where is the balance? I will be faced with income tax and many other taxes and I will wonder who implemented these taxation policies at what was their reasoning. I liked Charles Wheelan's quote "It is not easy to transfer money from the rich to the poor." He talked about how rich people can avoid high taxation by finding ways around the system (changing residency). And he explained that generally economists prefer taxes that are broad (small tax on a large group), simple(easily understood), and fair (people with the same income will pay the same amount of taxes).