School Vouchers: The subsidisation of education by the state is a great example of taxation policy in action. The existance of public and private schools is an example of transfer payments from private school parents to public school parents. Of course, private schools in Australia are subsidised too. From another perspective, the education of young people (especially teritary education) is a transfer from taxpayers to business owners. Again, there are non-economic benefits of education such as those underwriting our democracy.
We could remove the subsidisation, and return the taxes to parents to pay for a private education. Children with responsible parents would be no worse off, especially if the returned taxes were spread across our progressive tax and welfare system. Of course, there are irresponsible parents.
I say this not in support of any change or policy but to illustrate the complexity in determining tax fairness -- and this is the tip of the iceberg.
And I am forgetting about adults, who have no child to educate, but will depend on the children of the nation during their senior years.
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