No Taxes Before 30
“More Americans benefit from public expenditures than pay income taxes,” contends Adam Mill at American Greatness, a trend accelerated by the response to COVID-19. The real national emergency is a system that “encourages people to underachieve and indulge indolence,” Mill advances a solution: you pay no taxes until you turn 30.
“This simple plan would supercharge the careers of businesses and young people with virtually no loss of taxpayer revenue.” Young people remain free to indulge in indolence, but as their peers earn and save tax-free, peer pressure “will quickly supplant victim culture.”
This plan “counters the popularity of socialism by increasing the number of living billboards for capitalism.” Whatever taxes are lost on the front end “will be more than recuperated as the young people age out of the tax holiday into their peak earning years.”
While people of all ages ponder the plan, they might consider a similar deal for people beyond the age of 62, the minimum age for Social Security. The proceeds from this plan are not wages but are still subject to taxation. During his long career in the Senate, Joe Biden voted twice to tax Social Security, which has other limitations people should know.
At 62, workers get the lowest possible payout. Suppose they opt to supplement their Social Security payments with work. In that case, the government will deduct one dollar for every two dollars the worker earns beyond the annual limit of 21,240. At the full retirement age of 67, for people attaining the minimum age in 2023, that changes to one dollar deducted for every three dollars earned, with an annual limit of $56,520.
That is not exactly big-time bucks in inflationary times, and until they become eligible for Medicare at 65, workers are still responsible for their own health care. Workers are also better able to perform at 62 than at 67, so the taxes and limitations make little sense. At this writing, nobody is talking about eliminating the taxes on Social Security and the limits on earnings. That deserves serious consideration, and so does the plan for no taxes before 30.
The only people who could oppose such a plan, Mill contends, “are those that want or benefit from disaffected dependents.” Mill anticipates “some logic pretzel claiming such a plan would somehow harm minorities.” Whatever the objections, it’s hard to imagine that Mill’s “no taxes before 30” plan could be worse than the encouragement of indolence going on now.
