There are a number of things in President Obama’s state of the union address on Tuesday night that annoyed me. Not surprising, seeing as I’m not exactly keen on Marxist politicians, and I’m not wild about “economic equality”, which the president called the defining issue of our time. If the American people give him the chance, he’ll use his power to – as he explained to Joe the Plumber back in 2008 – spread the wealth around.

Exactly what those measures might be, the president did not say. But it’s fair to assume they’ll rhyme with higher taxes on the most productive members of the American society. Which is exactly the opposite of what he should do, and for a few good reasons that aren’t even all that right-wingy.

First of all, richer Americans already pay disproportionately more in taxes than poorer Americans. You need to earn money before you can pay income taxes – and those people who aren’t earning much aren’t paying much. That’s not in principle unfair, provided the differential is reasonable. But past a certain point, people will devote inordinate amounts of time, money and energy trying to avoid paying taxes, which isn’t the best way to use your citizens’ creative energies.

Secondly, “the rich” will always have more ways of avoiding taxes than the average salaried employee earning $50,000 a year. How much is it worth to close all the loopholes and police those people to make sure they pay their so-called “fair” share?

A much simpler solution is a flat tax. Count all the money you made last year. Subtract, say, $25,000 so that students and low-income earners don’t pay much, and send the government, say, 12% or 15% of the rest. No exemptions, no tax credits, no loopholes, no need for fancy accountants, no need for so many tax bureaucrats, no way for politicians to mess with the tax code for political reasons.

That way those who make more money would pay more, but not exponentially more than the guys who make less. And you wouldn’t need to turn your society into a Marxist, redistributionist nightmare. Somehow, I don’t expect Barack Obama to adopt this idea…