With tax day upon us, I would like to make a radical proposal. We should stop using taxes to take from one group to give to another. It is possible to have a tax system in which all individuals pay the same amount. Such a tax has been called a “poll tax” or a “head tax,” but let’s follow Jeffrey Schoenblum in calling it what it is: an “equal tax.” A family’s tax bill would be based on the number of people in the family. Such a tax would be akin to dues: everyone pays the same and everyone gets the same. Taxes would be proportional to benefits, and individuals would all receive the same benefits. Taxes would thus be like an Automobile Association of America (AAA) membership. You pay for the benefits you get. In any given year you may not use the benefits of membership much, and in other years you may use them a lot. In general you hope not to use or need them much or at all. They simply provide a sense of security. So the state would be like a club in which we pay dues for benefits. As long as we receive the same benefits we should pay the same amount in dues. Consider this: Would you join an organization that wanted you to pay more for the same benefits as everyone else just because you have a higher income? Perhaps some people would. But would you be willing to pay a fixed percentage of your income to join? Of course some people tithe to their church, but few churches enforce this. On that note, consider that 1 Samuel 8: 10-18 warns the people of Israel against having a king because a king will want to take 10% of what they produce. If only our income were merely decimated by taxes in America! One might object to the equal tax because it'd be regressive, charging a lower percentage of income the upper one's income rose. In reality, this price structure is solely a basic tenet of the free market; people pay the identical amount for a gallon of gas regardless of what percentage of their income that amounts to.