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Forums - General Discussion - Tax discussion thread (U.S. focused)

I want no income tax. Earning money is nothing more then transferring your time into something other people want. Why tax the conversion?

I want all tax collected when you spend it. Things like food, and basic clothing can be tax free. All other things should have a tax that is high enough to collect enough money to run the country (30-40%). Also interest should be taxed.

The pure act of transferring your time into a commodity should not incur a penalty. Everything else is fair game :)



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Joe the plumber? Are you serious? He's a Republican who decided to do a "gotcha" on Obama but forgot that he isn't legally qualified to do his current job. Anyway even ignoring that, when did Obama "attack" him?

Sarah Palin? When did Obama "degrade" her? "Putting lipstick on a pig" is a well-known turn of phrase and I don't think it's credible that it was aimed at her in any way. Going after her qualifications for potential presidency is a completely valid target.

The Pennsylvania quote was bad, but it has been blown out of proportion.

Moving on (back) to your second to last paragraph, why do you think McCain is telling the truth about budget-balancing, but lying about the tax cut, when he actually has a detailed plan for the tax cut but not for the budget-balancing, and when Republicans have a long history of cutting taxes but not balancing the budget?

P.S. Aside from the bolded part, this is kind of getting off topic. It's not a problem as long as we don't expand the off-topic discussion beyond what it already covers.



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TheRealMafoo said:
I want no income tax. Earning money is nothing more then transferring your time into something other people want. Why tax the conversion?

I want all tax collected when you spend it. Things like food, and basic clothing can be tax free. All other things should have a tax that is high enough to collect enough money to run the country (30-40%). Also interest should be taxed.

The pure act of transferring your time into a commodity should not incur a penalty. Everything else is fair game :)

That's an interesting idea -- I've heard other ideas regarding a national sales tax but this sounds different.  But all evidence shows that tax evasion becomes a major problem with high retail sales taxes. 

Anyway, it could be argued that you are simply selling your labor (the commodity you speak of) on a contractual basis.  So actually taxes on wages are a sort of sales tax! 



Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
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I have the most epic death scene ever in VGChartz Mafia.  Thanks WordsofWisdom! 

Final-Fan said:

That's an interesting idea -- I've heard other ideas regarding a national sales tax but this sounds different.  But all evidence shows that tax evasion becomes a major problem with high retail sales taxes. 

Anyway, it could be argued that you are simply selling your labor (the commodity you speak of) on a contractual basis.  So actually taxes on wages are a sort of sales tax! 


If there were no income tax, a lot businesses would die. Why hire services from another company and pay taxes when you can just hire your own workers?

 



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bigjon said:
My personal belief is that after we pull out of this reccession that we need to raise taxes across the board (not in a socialistic way), and cut back alot of Government programs, and get out of Iraq as soon as we can. As bad as the current crisis may appear the true danger is the massive amount of debt our nation is incurring. Raising taxes and cutting spending would allow us to balance the budget quickly. The only taxes that should not be raised is corporate taxes and business taxes. We can't let taxes destroy job creation.

You know it actually hurts the economy more when you raise poor people's taxes than when you raise rich people's taxes right?

Poor people spend a higher percentage of their income than rich people do, so every dollar they have that isn't taxed is more likely to get injected into the economy.  Why shouldn't capitalism encourage this, as it is the ideal solution for the market, to have as much money as possible flowing through the market?

 



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It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

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TheRealMafoo said:
I want no income tax. Earning money is nothing more then transferring your time into something other people want. Why tax the conversion?

I want all tax collected when you spend it. Things like food, and basic clothing can be tax free. All other things should have a tax that is high enough to collect enough money to run the country (30-40%). Also interest should be taxed.

The pure act of transferring your time into a commodity should not incur a penalty. Everything else is fair game :)

Do you have any idea how badly this would work?  People would start buying all their goods abroad either online or through other means to avoid the tax because they would end up saving more money that way, not to mention exports would decrease dramatically.

What you are proposing would cripple the economy because people would adjust their spending habits to avoid the tax whenever possible.  A less than 10% sales tax may affect people's purchasing habits, but not anywhere near as much as a 30-40% tax. 

You claim to know so much about economics, but you are proposing something that would cripple the U.S. economy.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

cool down, akuma587. And you may be wrong about prices going up -- wages might go down by the amount of income tax there isn't and prices stay the same.

As for crippling the economy, I haven't studied enough to know and -- I strongly suspect -- neither have you.



Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The old smileys: ; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for , let me know!
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I have the most epic death scene ever in VGChartz Mafia.  Thanks WordsofWisdom! 

akuma587 said:
TheRealMafoo said:
I want no income tax. Earning money is nothing more then transferring your time into something other people want. Why tax the conversion?

I want all tax collected when you spend it. Things like food, and basic clothing can be tax free. All other things should have a tax that is high enough to collect enough money to run the country (30-40%). Also interest should be taxed.

The pure act of transferring your time into a commodity should not incur a penalty. Everything else is fair game :)

Do you have any idea how badly this would work?  People would start buying all their goods abroad either online or through other means to avoid the tax because they would end up saving more money that way, not to mention exports would decrease dramatically.

What you are proposing would cripple the economy because people would adjust their spending habits to avoid the tax whenever possible.  A less than 10% sales tax may affect people's purchasing habits, but not anywhere near as much as a 30-40% tax. 

You claim to know so much about economics, but you are proposing something that would cripple the U.S. economy.

 

Final-Fan is right about corruption. It would be hard to keep people from bartering or just out right buying things under the table. But aside from that, I think it's a good idea.

Oh, and it's not my idea. I shared a cab ride once, on the way to the airport from a tax convention, with the head accountant from Disney. It was his idea. I am guessing he knows more about the economy then both you and I combined.

I was skeptical of the idea at first, but he made some very good points. Sadly, I was flying first class, and due to the free alcohol, I can't remember all the talking points :p

 



TheRealMafoo said:

It was his idea. I am guessing he knows more about the economy then both you and I combined.

 


He probably also knows less than the Federal Reserve guys, and look where those guys got us.

 



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NJ5 said:
TheRealMafoo said:

It was his idea. I am guessing he knows more about the economy then both you and I combined.

 


He probably also knows less than the Federal Reserve guys, and look where those guys got us.

 

 

I am guessing the guy at Disney didn't have lobbyist telling him what to do.