The FairTax, Join in!

[Sqrl]

phil said:

Sqrl said:
Just for the record, a lot of very wealthy Americans are already moving out of the country to various non-extradition South American countries. The rich have the means to pick up and leave, all you have to do is give them a motive.

This whole idea that 10% of people should pay for 90% of the taxes or whatever the percentages are is going to fail once that 10% says "F this!". I actually know people who plan on moving to Ecuador, they invited me to come down and help pick a house with them. These people aren't filthy rich either, together they make about 240k a year. Where did they get the idea? Other wealthy people they are friends with.

The idea that the minority pay for the majority is great so long as you're majority. Just keep on pushing these people away, lets see what that does to the economy.

Seeing as to how the top 20% of America controls over 90% of the country's wealth, it's only fair that they pay over 90% of the taxes. If they wanna move offshore and say "F This," then the state can go ahead and say "F you back." I'm sure there's someone who wouldn't mind doing their job for half their pay.

Uhm you do realise that a lot of the people we are talking about have job titles of "investor" right? I don't know many people who are willing to take over another investors stake at half the profits considering they would still be responisble for the same amount of risk. Which really this is what this boils down to. Investors are what keep economies from stagnating, put up money for new business, and new products, or ideas.

I don't think you really understand what the 20% of Americans do with their wealth that makes them so wealthy or you would have gotten this point to start with. If a meaningful percentage of that 20% decides to head for greener pastures then this country is in serious trouble. The simple fact is that if 90% of this countries wealth picks up and leaves there aren't going to be jobs for many of us. But to be clear I don't think all of them are actually going to leave.

I'm simply making the point that we need them a lot more than they need us and they are actually willing to pay more than the average person. Thats part of the disconnect here. Anyone who doesn't recognize that the rich need to pay more for the system to work is deluding themselves, so lets be clear on that. I disagree that they should have to pay more but basic economics dictates that they have to..they absolutely must. What isn't so clear cut however is the amount they should be paying.

@topic at large:

Here is my problem with the anti-FairTax position:

It seems the major idea behind the opposition is picking at the details, and I actually think this is a good thing if the intentions are fair-minded. A tax system needs to be picked apart and rebuilt time and again before it is ready to be instated. But what I don't get is that just about everyone (let me know if you don't) thinks that the current system is awful.

So, to me it seems that we should be looking for a new system, we should be tearing apart the FairTax and pointing out its problems, and we should then fix those problems and put it back together in a way that will work.

The key a lot of people are missing(imo) is to realise that not every market sector is going to benefit from a new system. A tax system is going to favor some market sectors over others and there is no way around that. A change in tax systems is going to require some people to find new jobs..again, no way around it. But neither of those things by themselves should be a detterant to not implementing a better system. Both of those things are going to cause short-term issues as the market rebalances itself in its new environment...but after that its life as usual.

Really I don't want to argue about the nitty gritty details, its enough for me to leave it up to the experts so long as everyone can agree that what we have now is simply atrocious. Hopefully they can come up with something a lot simpler than what we have now.

To everyone in the thread: Are you happy with the current system or do you think we need a new system (even if that new system isn't the fair tax)?