the rationale for ability-to-pay taxation and the contention that those with large incomes should pay more taxes both absolutely and relatively is that: group of answer choices taxes should be paid for financing public goods in direct proportion to the satisfaction an individual derives from those goods. the transfer system is regressive and it is therefore essential to have an offsetting progressive tax structure. rational consumers spend their first dollars of income on the most urgently desired goods and successive dollars on less essential goods. high-income receivers are generally in a better position to shift taxes than are low-income receivers.