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321
HeadSet
2025 Dec 19, 6:52pm
HeadSet
2025 Dec 19, 6:52pm
Patrick says
We already have that with the land part of our real estate property tax.
Patrick says
Our ancestors who had to clear a dense forest to build a homestead and plant crops may disagree with you. Same with those who had to level hills, do some irrigation, or drain a swamp. Zealand folks actually reclaimed land from the sea.
It is fair and appropriate to tax land.
We already have that with the land part of our real estate property tax.
Patrick says
No one created the land
Our ancestors who had to clear a dense forest to build a homestead and plant crops may disagree with you. Same with those who had to level hills, do some irrigation, or drain a swamp. Zealand folks actually reclaimed land from the sea.
322
Patrick
2025 Dec 20, 2:01pm
Patrick
2025 Dec 20, 2:01pm
Yes, land is taxed, and that's good, but the buildings and improvements should not be taxed at all.
Clearing a forest is not creating land. It's improving land, and that productive work should not be taxed at all.
The Dutch are just about the only people really creating land, and that's very rare. It's productive work, so that increase in land value from work should not be taxed either.
The big goal here is to end all taxes on productive work, but instead to tax only non-productive sponging off of productive people. Collecting land rents from mere land ownership is a good example of non-productive sponging.
Rents on buildings are perfectly fair though, and should be completely untaxed. Construction and maintenance of buildings is productive work.
Clearing a forest is not creating land. It's improving land, and that productive work should not be taxed at all.
The Dutch are just about the only people really creating land, and that's very rare. It's productive work, so that increase in land value from work should not be taxed either.
The big goal here is to end all taxes on productive work, but instead to tax only non-productive sponging off of productive people. Collecting land rents from mere land ownership is a good example of non-productive sponging.
Rents on buildings are perfectly fair though, and should be completely untaxed. Construction and maintenance of buildings is productive work.
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Until the 16th ammendment was passed in the early 1900's, we got by without fedetal income taxes. Tariffs did the trick. Of course, we were not yet the superpower we became, huge millitary and all, and there were not nearly the federally funded social programs we have today.
Frankly, I don't think your average American realizes how heavily they are taxed. Federal. State (with some excaptions) Property. School. Gas. Sales. Etc.
For most in the middle and upper middle class, federal income tax is the biggest share of taxes paid on a percentage basis.
In a modern captalist economy, it makes more sense to me to tax consumption rather than income.
So why not abolish the federal income tax, and instead have a federal tax on goods and services rendered. Better yet, couple it with a balanced budget amment so that the government can't spend money they don't have.
Taxing goods should be straightforward to implement. Buy a bag of rice, clothes, a house, a car, stock, etc. tax it at a nominal rate to raise sufficent revenue to keep the government running. Tax should apply to individuals and corporations alike. I have no idea what the rate would need to be to replace the lost income income revenue, but there must be a way for the been counters to figure that out.
Same holds for services. From your lawyer to your plumber to your accountant.. services rendered should also be taxed... possibly at a different rate than physical goods, since we are a "service based economy".
Just thinking out loud here.. In the 21st century there MUST be a better way to raise revenue than income tax and the various loopholes used to reduce or even avoid ones tax burden.