The Daily Bubble

Should America adopt a flat tax? The appeal is simple: flat taxes are easy to understand and hard to avoid. Now there is strong evidence that flat tax countries are growing more quickly. This doesn't prove a causal relationship, but it's certainly compelling. You can read the theoretical case for flat taxes and how a flat tax can be progressive.

Is this a cause conservatives and most liberals can embrace? It may be. The primary liberal objection is that flat tax countries may tend to a more uneven distribution of wealth. But is that intuition true? Here's one paper that suggests the opposite is true, but I'm not an economist and can't vouch for the strength of the data. I'm looking for more discussion on the subject so let me know if you come across anything interesting.

UPDATE: From Forbes, here's a proposal for a progressive 14% flat tax.

UPDATE: Here's a link with updated numbers (from the comments). Unfortunately, these numbers are for smaller, developing economies and are not an apples-to-apples comparison. We need a few developed nations to take the plunge and see if their growth rates suddenly increase. ANOTHER UPDATE: The figures on that site and in the first comment are not adjusted for inflation which, in the case of Georgia, is over 5%.

Unfortunately, the numbers you link to appear to be inaccurate. Fortunately, they are highly understated. The actual numbers can be found here:

All Flat-Tax Countries Experiencing Explosive Growth Rates

2004 GDP growth rates there averaged a staggering 8%, well over twice the industrialized nations' average of 3.4%. Of course these flat-tax rates vary widely, from 12-33%. Among the six lowest-taxed countries, growth rates are the highest: 8.6%. The lowest-taxed three have 9.5% growth.

Your link has the additional problem of including growth results from Greece, which has not yet adopted the flat-tax. Andrew Sullivan has already updated his link.