Thread: Taxes?

Originally Posted by jockeys

so that it can be given to/spent on those who had equally nothing to do with earning it?

Theoretically, the government spends money on things that benefit everyone, for the common good.

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Theoretically, the government spends money on things that benefit everyone, for the common good.

Hey, now there's a commonist idea! Somehow I doubt the government knows how to benefit everyone though To take it to the extreme, why not just do away with currency completely and let the government proportion all the necessary resources to those who need it?

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Theoretically, the government spends money on things that benefit everyone, for the common good.

hah! maybe in Italy. Here in the states, tax money gets spent on lobbyists, special interest groups, and pork contracts to friends of politicians.

Originally Posted by jockeys

hah! maybe in Italy. Here in the states, tax money gets spent on lobbyists, special interest groups, and pork contracts to friends of politicians.

Ah, you're talking about how taxes are spent ... I thought the discussion was about how they should be collected.

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Theoretically, the government spends money on things that benefit everyone, for the common good.

Originally Posted by jockeys

hah! maybe in Italy. Here in the states, tax money gets spent on lobbyists, special interest groups, and pork contracts to friends of politicians.

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Ah, you're talking about how taxes are spent ... I thought the discussion was about how they should be collected.

Looks like you are both talking about how it is spent. I don't mind, it's good stuff.

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Theoretically, the government spends money on things that benefit everyone, for the common good.

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Ah, you're talking about how taxes are spent ... I thought the discussion was about how they should be collected.

It seems that you were talking about how taxes are spent too!

"So you'd rather have a tax on people for their hard work than for their toy purchases?"

Well, that's part of my point. Those opposed to the inheritance tax favor taxing one's income earned through labor over taxing one's income earned through nothing other than being the offspring of the rich. That's why I'm not opposed to inheritance taxes as a part of the global tax-raising scheme. Why tax the wage earner but not the inheritor?
But leaving that subject aside for the moment, on the question of whether it is a better tax system to tax wages versus a federal sales tax, again my concern is that if wages aren't taxed and only spending is, the very wealthy could end up paying very little taxes at all even though they are the largest wage earners, resulting in the tax burden falling more heavily on the middle and lower classes, who are the least able to afford paying taxes to begin with, and who fell the economic pinch of taxes far more acutely than the wealthy.

Any kind of system involving voluntary compliance will mean people will cheat and be dishonest. The best way is a federal tax on everything that way the more you buy the more you pay. No more cheating the tax collector. No more phony tax shelters or phony business claims and all the other rubbish that goes on now. It would also eliminate the IRS in one fell swoop.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Any kind of system involving voluntary compliance will mean people will cheat and be dishonest. The best way is a federal tax on everything that way the more you buy the more you pay. No more cheating the tax collector. No more phony tax shelters or phony business claims and all the other rubbish that goes on now. It would also eliminate the IRS in one fell swoop.

You will still need someone to check that merchants are collecting and paying the tax. Unless, you have auditors visiting stores on a regular basis, you still have a voluntary system, so you haven't eliminated anything.

Originally Posted by billyjeff2

Why tax the wage earner but not the inheritor?

That's unfair to the wage earner. Better to tax neither