Kasz216 said:
Even as an indirect wealth tax it is still a wealth tax... it doesn't apply to everyone and that's a bit confusing since the reason the poor are usually exempt from paying taxes are moot. (The person is dead, therefore has zero cost of living.) Just an indirect one... and yeah, basically I meant that sales taxes and in general things sales taxes are wealth taxes because they do target the wealthy more since sales taxes do not apply to everything. (Though with the current system as it is, that isn't a problem.) Also i would argue such taxes are relevent since I would think that all taxes should be through a straight income tax. More and more it seems the support for wealth taxes grow. We haven't had any yet. But progressive taxes and wealth taxes both set out to do the same thing. Take money from the rich because people believe the rich have too much money. |
(1) It's true that the estate tax is specifically aimed at relatively wealthy estates. Partly this can be viewed as a check on entrenched plutocracy. Another way to view it is as simple practicality: wealth taxes are difficult to assess (easier to hide) and it's just not worth it for small estates.
(2) While it's true that many "basic needs" items are sales-tax-exempt, it's also true that poorer people spend much higher proportions on their income on consumption. What is your evidence that sales taxes fall more heavily on the wealthy?
(3) But they're NOT relevant to the specific discussion of "progressive vs. flat income tax" unless you want to account for the effects of those other tax burdens on people when deciding. If we are discussing the income tax as the ONLY tax which would be imposed, then those other taxes are totally irrelevant to the discussion. Like I said in the quoted text. You can start a new discussion about that, but I consider our plate relatively full already.
(4) I'm not convinced this is true, as I said in my other post. Anyway, your flat tax idea would exempt the "basic needs" income (or have the gov't provide those basic needs); isn't is reasonable to suppose that there is a basic estate that a family needs to retain through generations? (Aside from the practical considerations outlined in (1).)
Anyway, why do you think people have that motivation instead of that the rich can simply afford to pay more without equivalent hardship? You may disagree with that opinion, but it's hardly the "crabs in a bucket pulling each other down" image that you evoke.
Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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