Dr. Ben Carson's tithing wisdom

By Armstrong Williams - 02/11/13 11:34 AM ET

I was intrigued with Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at John Hopkins University Dr. Ben Carson's perspective on tithing and our tax system during his recent address at the National Prayer Breakfast.

The reason that tithing is such a fair way to tax people is because it's proportional. As soon as you move away from proportional taxing, ideology takes over. As a result, ideology is, quite frankly, arbitrary and depends upon the flavor of the month.

A growing number of people seriously think that the rich should pay more, while some feel they should pay less. When you introduce the tithing concepts of proportionality, all of those arguments disappear immediately. One could legitimately make the argument that if the top 1 percent pay 37 percent of their income taxes and the top 5 percent pay 59 percent, this clearly demonstrates their tax base should be lower. The top 5 percent don't make 59 percent of the income, and yet they pay 59 percent of the taxes. Therefore it is simple and fair to make the argument that they are being overtaxed.

One could delve into all types of arguments depending on their ideology, and that is why simplification is the only true and fair solution.

Tithing represents 10 percent of one's income. A proportional tax system does not have to reside at 10 percent. It can be higher or lower depending on the needs of the government. Because it would be applied proportionally to the entire population, the government would be unlikely to raise taxes to a very high level, because it would affect everyone and not just a small group of voters.

This is a clear advantage of a proportional tax rate where everyone participates. Again, a logical analysis of a system where 50 percent of the people pay no income taxes but are allowed to vote to make the other people pay more taxes makes absolutely no sense. If one goes back and analyzes not only tithing but many of the principles advocated in the Bible, I think they can rediscover what true fairness is.

I also strongly encourage you to read more about Dr. Ben Carson, especially his latest New York Times best-selling book America the Beautiful.