My accountant just showed me that I paid more in payroll taxes last year than my two teenagers combined earned, which got me thinking about whether flat taxes are fairer than our current brackets. A single mother earning $35,000 loses a bigger chunk of her check to FICA than a CEO paying the same rate on ten times that income, yet raising her tax to match his seems cruel, not equitable. I've read arguments that progressive rates punish success and that consumption taxes would be simpler, but I keep returning to the question: should payroll taxes remain flat, or should they mirror income tax brackets to ease the burden on low-wage workers?