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F@ck the Rich — Let’s Tax the $hit out of them


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2007 Jul 19, 8:28am   28,703 views  254 comments

by HARM   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

Mmmm... tastes like... pork

We've often had lively debates here at Patrick.net about tax policy (flat tax vs. progressive tax, taxing wages vs. passive capital gains or consumption, what constitutes a "luxury" good vs. "staple" good, framing the inheritance tax as the evil "death tax", etc.).

Personally, I would like a much less complicated and less loophole-ridden tax structure that accomplishes the following economic and social goals, which are important to me:

  • Greatly simplifies the tax system, so fewer resources are wasted on creating, finding and exploiting loopholes, not to mention needless and costly "make work" programs for tax attorneys and accountants.
  • Eliminates needless preferential taxpayer subsidies for profitable industries that don't need any help (oil, gas, big pharma, big agriculture, REIC, etc.), and gradually phases out subsidies for poorly run unprofitable business that should be allowed to fail.
  • Disincentivizes long-term welfare of BOTH kinds: corporate AND individual. About the only long-term "welfare" we should be providing is for the truly handicapped and too-old-to-work elderly. Everyone else should get off their asses, get a job and pay taxes like everyone else. If unemployed (or the country's in recession), you get a temporary helping hand and some job retraining until you're back to work, but that's about it.
  • Disincentivizes subsidies and bailouts for reckless speculators using taxpayers' money. If you want to gamble on your own dime, go for it. But don't come begging to me and other responsible savers for a bailout because you doubled-down on real estate and threw 7s. Tough shit, pal --suck it up and grow smarter like the rest of us.
  • Moderate bias in favor of redistributing wealth away from the idle uber-wealthy (currently growing richer at a phenomenal rate) to the getting-screwed-from-both-ends working class (not illegals or willfully unemployed welfare "queens" or breeding crack addicts, thank you).

    • While these goals are important to me, I recognize that everyone has their own priorities and agenda, which may be different from mine. Although I tend to lean in favor of a (greatly simplified) mildly progressive tax structure that treats all asset classes and income sources equally, and eliminates pretty much all corporate and individual subsidies (call it "Flat Tax Lite"), I'm open to other suggestions. I consider myself a fairly practical, pragmatic person, not so bound to one particular ideology that I'm unwilling to consider reasonable alternatives and/or compromises.

    So, there you go. Have at it.
    HARM

    #housing

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    254   kiatoa   2007 Aug 15, 2:34am  

    You're all wrong! Just kidding, however there is a solution that I didn't see posted above, the Henry George "single tax". Take a look at www.henrygeorge.org but don't reject the idea until you are sure you really understand it. It takes a little study since it flies in the face of common preconceptions and it is very easy to think you get it when you don't. Just keep in mind the principle - don't tax that which you want more of!

    By the by, the FairTax is, IMHO, only very slightly better than the current mess. It is far from a good solution.

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