See what you think

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and 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 would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So that's what they decided to do.
The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant everyday and seemed quite  happy with the arrangement, until one day the owner threw them a  curve.  "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm  going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."  Dinner for
the ten will now cost just $80.

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 men - the paying customers?   How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get
his 'fair share?'  They 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 each 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, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings) .
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings)
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.  He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man.  "I only saved a  dollar too; it's unfair that he got ten times more than me."
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man.  "Why should he get $10 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 the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine  sat down and ate without him.  But wh en it came time to pay the  bill, they discovered something important.  They didn't have enough  money between all of them for even half of the bill.
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is  how our tax system works.  The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.  Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore, in  fact they might start eating overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D
Distinguished Professor of Economics, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia