1. for this article I post the link, can you write a short summary of what the article is about. It can be up to 4 to 5 sentences. Just to explain to students what the article is about and they can respond.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/03/09/if-you-dont-pay-taxes/

2. This article I'm posting below was posted by a fellow student, I just need a substantive response to this article(it can be as long as 4 to 5 sentence).

I found an interesting article that discusses Ben Carson's proposed tax plan in more detail.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/10/ben_carson_s_tax_plan_is_based_on_the_bible_good_lord.html

Ben Carson's proposed tax plan is based on the principle of tithing which is discussed many times in the Bible. Carson seems to be pointing to God's notion of fairness as a means of determining who should pay taxes and how much they should pay.

The basic idea is that people should play a flat percentage of their income, and that today's deductions and loopholes should be eliminated. He sites that such a plan would be inherently fair and simple.

His simplistic tax plan poses a lot of questions. Should we be taking him literally and looking towards the Bible in terms of attaining tax fairness?

The fact is that biblical taxes were established for the specific religious purposes at the time, and it was never intended to give us insight on our modern, secular tax system. This article discusses many of the issues with Carson's plan and how taxes discussed in the Bible are not really applicable to today's society.

All religious beliefs set aside, do you think that taxes should be based on fairness, and if so, does Carson's flat tax tithing plan make sense for us today? And is it fair?

I think that one of the issues that we have today is determining what should be considered income. Part of the reason we have this complicated system is that we have to account for the many ways that people earn and spend money.   In addition, I think we have learned that we need to have complex tax provisions that promote the social policies we deem necessary for our country.

Okay, let's assume we did move to a flat tax/tithe systems where everyone pays 15% tax on their income...

What about the individuals that are in economic strife? The Bible says that such persons in economic strife should be relieved of their burden to pay. So, how do we determine who those people are?

I am kind of surprised that Ben Carson thinks this a good plan for our US tax system.  Carson appears to be a very detailed and pragmatic type of person, but this flat tax plan doesn't seem to be very detailed or well thought out.  I'm sure many of us would be happy to change the tax system, and maybe many of us want it to be more simplistic or have a higher degree of "fairness", but really?

Let me know what you think. If you agree with Ben Carson's plan in some ways please let me know why. What could we do to solve of the potential issues?

Chodorow, A. (2015, October 30). Ben Carson Proposed a Tax Plan Based on the Bible. Good Lord. Retrieved November 9, 2015.