patrick.net

I'm certainly tired of the 'I have to check the tax code' before I make a decision BS. What kind of freedom is that? its bs.

Eventually in 100 years there will so many laws of every stripe you will have to have THREE acountants and lawyers in order to function. The messy system barely functions now.

Wow. I can't believe that this came up on your site. I have been a fanatical patrick.net reader for a while now, and I am also a rabid proponent of the FairTax legislation.

If you haven't heard of the FairTax, the best thing to do is to go to FairTax.org and read up about it, or you can read an article that I wrote for TriplePundit.com.

I believe that the FairTax accomplishes all of your goals:

Greatly simplifies the tax system: the FairTax abolishes the income tax, payroll tax, estate and gift taxes and capital-gains taxes, and corporate taxes, and replaces them all with a 23% inclusive retail sales tax, collected only once at the final point of purchase. Did I mention that it abolishes the IRS too? States collect the tax and remit it to the federal government, and are paid a small percentage for doing so, the same as the retailers who also receive a small percentage.

Disincentivizes long-term welfare of BOTH kinds: corporate AND individual: The FairTax eliminates all loopholes, incentives and handouts granted by our tax system. It is fair and simple, and levels the playing field.

Disincentivizes subsidies and bailouts for reckless speculators using
taxpayers’ money: This isn't a tax policy issue, it is a government spending issue. No tax policy can stop the government from bailing out industries in trouble if they want to...

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: The fairTax does this by including a rebate that every legal resident gets at the beginning of each month for the poverty amount of tax on spending. This provides some progressivity, and relieves the tax burden completely from the most poor americans.

In addition, it taxes not only wage earners, but anyone who spends money, including illegal aliens, drug dealers, tourists, and the wealthy, who spend a lot of money in this country.

There's a lot more to know, so please check out FairTax.org.

Uh... don't you want to be insanely rich one day? Isn't this what America is about? Everyone has a right to dream, or even has a chance, no matter how small it is, of becoming disgustingly rich?

Was that sarcasm, OO? I mean, that could be used to justify pretty much any abhorrent condition, as long as there was a lottery system to let a couple proles out of the muck from time to time.

@OO,

I repeat:

“Don’t forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.”
–John Dickinson (character from the play "1776")

Honestly, I'd prefer to have a society where everyone (who is willing to work) can live safely and be "comfortable", have 6-8+ weeks of paid vacation every year, cradle-to-grave healthcare, be able to afford to buy a modest house (without having to compete with govt-subsidized speculators) and send their kids to college (if that's important to them).

Becoming disgustingly rich would "nice", but it's pretty far down on my list of really important priorities. Especially if being rich means spending much of my money on bribes and my own private army of security forces, designed to keep out the hordes of angry, starving commoners who all want to kill me.

Even if one could succeed in simplifying the tax code, the complexity would creep back in over time. The reason we have a convoluted tax code full of deductions and special rules is that politicians get rewarded or at least think they do for creating the mess. Every deduction or special rule has a constituency it serves.

The only way to get and keep a reasonable tax system is for politicians to start governing like adults which requires voters to start voting like them. As long ads like "X voted for higher taxes 137 times" continue to work when what X was really doing was closing loopholes, we'll have an awful system.

"Ditto" to what requiem said.

"Honestly, I’d prefer to have a society where everyone (who is willing to work) can live safely and be “comfortable”, have 6-8+ weeks of paid vacation every year, cradle-to-grave healthcare, be able to afford to buy a modest house (without having to compete with govt-subsidized speculators) and send their kids to college (if that’s important to them)."

There is such a place. It's called France. But their economy has been tanking for decades now - everyone in the world now is competing with workers in the less-developed world. Having a ultra-labor-union view of life just doesn't work in the modern world. Even the French have woken up and elected Sarko.

Modifying the tax code to give untargetted penalties will merely add many more unintended consequenses. Why not TARGETTED penalties? For example, professional atheletes contribute NOTHING to society. They are idiots with big muscles and pea brains that take their ill-gotten loot and blow it on dope and crime. Why not target them on the basis of their job, not on the amount of money they make? Make the tax rate on jocks 100% on anything over $50K.

Might as well eliminate all tax on business. Tax on business is really just a hidden tax on their customers. Face it, YOU pay Apple, GE, PG&E's tax bill, not them.

A certain amount of complexity is probably unavoidable. However, if we had smart, well-intentioned and honest elected officials running the show, then a great deal of tax simplification could likely be achieved.

I had a tax professor who said that any system of taxation should have three essential goals (in no particular order):
1. economic rationality (which is somewhat measurable);
2. administrative feasibility (which is also somewhat measurable); and
3. fairness (which is in the eye of the beholder--but reasonable people could conceivably agree on the correct level of tax progressiveness, redistribution, etc...)

Unfortunately, in our dysfunctional political/economic system, it seems that the driving goals for each public official are:
1. get the most money possible to my biggest contributors
2. penalize my political opponents as much as possible; and
3. try to do #1 and #2 in ways that will be as opaque as possible to my constituents.

There is such a place. It’s called France. But their economy has been tanking for decades now - everyone in the world now is competing with workers in the less-developed world. Having a ultra-labor-union view of life just doesn’t work in the modern world. Even the French have woken up and elected Sarko.

How about Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, all of whom are doing just fine. France isn't even really doing that badly. The standard of living has been improving from an already pretty high level.

We need more Unions in this country. That is the only way to reverse the massive rise in inequality we have seen over the last few decades.

I won't hold my breath waiting for Americans to wake up to that fact, though.

What Requiem said. Silicon Valley is basically a lottery scheme with slightly better odds.

And for Christ sake stop treating religious groups differently in the tax code. I thought we were guarantied separation of church and state? All these gargantuan cathedral boxes popping up everywhere are disgusting, and really hinder my ability to worship internal combustion.

Couldn't we just blame rich people for all our problems? Then round them up, kill them, redistribute their house and personal wealth.

I call this the Pirate Solution.

@DennisN,

I never mentioned labor unions and honestly I don't even know if they're necessary or that relevant anymore. However, since you brought the subject up, I'm against forcibly hiring anyone purely due to gender or ethnicity, or preventing employers from firing for good cause (assuming it really is *good cause* and not just retaliation against whistle-blowing, etc.).