"Bar Stool Economics."
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
∙ The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
∙ The fifth would pay $1.
∙ The sixth would pay $3.
∙ The seventh would pay $7.
∙ The eighth would pay $12.
∙ The ninth would pay $18.
∙ The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
