Fair Tax

[Yoshi]

you are obviously a fag if you complain about your balls getting in the way. They are to be treasured.

Can you treasure Brett's balls somewhere else, please?

[Opaque]

LIKE IN MY PANTS!

[Fe 26]

More than yours. So that shoots down that theory right there.



The original comment was no one cares if those words make you feel all squishy in your pants. Someone who doesn't have a ban hanging over their head should tell you to just shut up.

heh, wrong on both counts

[Yoshi]

You want buttcheeks in your pants?

[Opaque]

Yes.

It's time someone other than Josh had TNL hanging from their over sized nuts.

[Fe 26]

You want buttcheeks in your pants?

I think all of TNL already has buttcheeks in their pants.

some more than others

[Dolemite]

I should tell my friends with small dicks to fuck children?

Like you don't want to bang kids.

[Bojack]

I read the book. Im for the concept if not how its outlined there. The US Tax Code is a pile of shit. Im not convinced this plan is totally revenue neutral, though. Im afraid of what would happen to the pure concept once it gets in the hands of debating politicians. Etc. Still, any effort to simplify the code and get rid of loopholes/exploits should be encouraged.

Yeah, I tend to agree that if every one does what they're supposed to do, Fair Tax would be pretty good. Well, at least for the average citizen (maybe). This plan seems to be interested in feeding on people's dislike of the current tax code more so than actually getting people to like it because it's a better plan.

I'm presonally against it because it seems to hinge on the fact that if you give people more money then the economy will automatically do better. Similar to trickle down theory (IIRC what trickle down is about). This seems like something that will shift pretty much all the tax burden on to the middle class. Because the super poor will pay no tax, assuming prebates are enough to keep up with what goods will cost with a 23%+ tax rate. But I see people losing a LOT of incentive to buy/produce new goods, and I see huge blackmarkets. I also see a lot of ambiguity with in fair taxes own workings.

But to be honest, this is something that rich people COMPLETELY FUCKING LOVE because it alows them to keep a shit load more of their money and because poor people are so for it because it seems so good to poor people. When in fact, poor and lower middle class don't have that much of a tax burden compared to the rich and corporations. Tax forms and code for most people are/is relatively simple for the average American. Filing out a 1040 EZ or a 1040A assuming no itemized deductions (because most of the poor and lower mid class have no real benefit of itemizing) and taking standard deductions is simple.

The current tax code, which I agree is in need of some huge overhauling, is rigged to do all sorts of things that wouldn't exist with fair tax. I.e. Medical and elderly dependancy deductions among other things. I dunno the more I think about it the more reasons I can see to maintain the current code, reform it a lot and keep it up. I'm also not saying that just because I'm an accounting major who likes to have job security. This is essentially flat tax in sheeps clothing. So to recap,

The poor will pay next to no taxes (and still get services which will piss people off like it does now)
The middle class will struggle as usual concerning taxes
The rich will have the least over all burden because they will have so much more money than they do now, and because you only NEED to spend so much money to live.

Corporations will make out like fucking bandits because consumers will be paying all the taxes.

So yeah, fair on paper, not in reality unless there's stuff about it I'm over looking.

[Diff-chan]

28%

No. Poor people pay virtually no federal tax. EITC. But I am pretty sure the lowest rate is 15%, not 28%.

They do, however, pay more than their fair share of regressive taxes like payroll, state, sales, etc.

Well then we should collect our payments from the rest of the world. I am gonna bet they owe us more than 900 trillion.

Nope, we are by far the world's largest debtor and its ballooning every year. Stop making shit up.

And before you say crap like "what about the foreign aid we give poor countries?!?!"... we give less than 5% of GDP in foreign aid and get all sorts of favors/blackmail power from it.

Good book on all this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...320724?ie=UTF8

It was written by a conservative who served in the Nixon Administration and on many economic commissions.

I dunno, that seems like a false dichotomy to me. The 1950s are widely considered (by conservatives) as a golden age for America, yet during that time the wealth disparity was at its lowest, the middle class thrived, and the country prospered. Even the most conservative President of the time, Truman, swore to uphold most of the New Deal policies and taxation.

Not to mention the 1950s had extremely progressive taxation. I believe the top rate was around 90% (today its 35%, I believe).

It is no exaggeration to say that trickle-down/supply-side economics has been thoroughly discredited, embarrassingly so. Twice. Yet for some reason some "conservatives" still treat it like gospel. It's just disgusting.

[Razor Ramon]

Diff, you give me so many great books to read. ~ You're soon to become my favorite poster. ~