I find “flat tax” proposals appealing. The only problem is, no one has ever proposed a true single-rate income tax, and even if we managed to get one through Congress by divine intervention or other supernatural means, it would probably get loaded with so many special preferences and exemptions during the next session of Congress that it would be no better than the tax law maze we have now. With that in mind, here is my (fantasy) proposal for a simple, fair income tax system:

Three hurricanes have passed over Florida in the last month. My wife and I live in a mobile home in Florida, and half the TV pictures of Florida hurricanes seem to show damaged or destroyed mobile homes, so it’s natural for out-of-state friends and relatives to worry about us. But the part of Florida where we live (Manatee County — about an hour’s drive South of Tampa) was not hit hard by any of these storms. The worst damage in our neighborhood was a couple of twisted shutters and some palm trees losing a few fronds that were due for trimming anyway. In other words, we’re fine. Not only that, we have a healthy awareness of a hurricane’s power and spent the hours when Frances passed nearby in our neighborhood storm shelter. Some people in Florida are prepared for hurricanes and some aren’t. We like to think we’re among the prepared ones. Except there’s no way to prepare for the endless phone calls and emails from people elsewhere who don’t realize that what they saw through the eyes of news cameras didn’t tell the whole story; that the camera focused on the worst damage and ignored all the homes — including most mobile homes — that sustained little or no storm damage.

For many years the age at which you get “full” Social Security benefits has been 65. But 70 or even 75 is probably more realistic for most people, and I mean realistic in the spirit of fairness, and I say this only partially because we expect more people to turn 65 over the next 20 years (including me) than the current Social Security system can afford.