The FairTax, Join in!

[phil]

Eomund said:

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.

You see our current income tax taxes/punishes achievement. The higher you climb, the more you get stolen from you. Under the FairTax it taxes how much you spend, and in order for you to spend you must have wealth to spend. If you only make $20,000 a year then you can only spend $20,000 a year plus credit, but you eventually have to pay credit back too which cuts out of future wealth. So the more money you have the greater oppurtunity to spend and get taxed. So if the top 20% have 90% of the wealth (probably a myth, but I do recognize that they top bracket controls a good portion of the wealth in the country) they can get taxed more as well under the FairTax.

Now if you say that the top 20% won't spend much money but instead invest or save it as tax free income, then who gets the invested or saved money? The company that they buy stock in, allowing them to do more R&D or more advertisement or more production. Or the savings account in a bank would allow the bank to loan more money out to start up businesses or as home mortages, who would offer products or services that would be taxed. So eventually their investment or savings get taxed in one form or another. Not only that but there would be an economic boom because of the investments and savings. Interest rates could drop because lenders would have a larger pool of money to pull from. There are many other benefits to the economy from the FairTax. I will get into those later.

Here you go again with assertions not backed up with numbers. First, the top 20% do in fact control 90% of the wealth, maybe you should GO AND READ before you make guesses:

Financial Wealth
Top 1 percent	Next 19 percent	Bottom 80 percent
1983	42.9%	48.4%	8.7%
1989	46.9%	46.5%	6.6%
1992	45.6%	46.7%	7.7%
1995	47.2%	45.9%	7.0%
1998	47.3%	43.6%	9.1%
2001	39.7%	51.5%	8.8%

 

Table 3: Share of wealth held by the Bottom 99% and Top 1% in the United States, 1922-1998.

	Bottom 99 percent	Top 1 percent
1922	63.3%	36.7%
1929	55.8%	44.2%
1933	66.7%	33.3%
1939	63.6%	36.4%
1945	70.2%	29.8%
1949	72.9%	27.1%
1953	68.8%	31.2%
1962	68.2%	31.8%
1965	65.6%	34.4%
1969	68.9%	31.1%
1972	70.9%	29.1%
1976	80.1%	19.9%
1979	79.5%	20.5%
1981	75.2%	24.8%
1983	69.1%	30.9%
1986	68.1%	31.9%
1989	64.3%	35.7%
1992	62.8%	37.2%
1995	61.5%	38.5%
1998	61.9%	38.1%

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

In addition, as graphs posted earlier in the thread show, the top 25% see a REDUCED tax burden from the FairTax. Also, if you think that a greater income disparity isn't a bad thing, check out the last time it was a 60/40 split. 1929. The income disparity certainly didn't help our economy out then, did it?