Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:


Well, you don't tax grocery store food or medical supplies, for one thing.
Restaurant food, take-out pizza, convenience store food, all that's
taxable because they're luxuries.

Once you start making exceptions, you are on your way to a mess of
a tax system like we have now.


And if you go to Kmart and buy a $5.00 pair of jeans, you pay $0.50 tax;
you go to Saks and buy a $250.00 pair of jeans, you pay $25.00 tax.

What does "regressive" mean anyway?

Basic costs of living are a larger percentage of a poor person's income
than they are of a rich person's income. If you tax those basic costs with
a "sales tax", it is a regressive tax. This is because the tax is a larger
percentage of the poor person's income than it is of the rich person.


If there's a 10% sales tax, then
the guy who buys a $2.00 toilet brush pays .20 tax,

The poor guy who pays that tax will have to work about 1 minute to pay
the tax. The rich guy will have to work a small fraction of a second
to pay the tax. That's regressive.

-Chuck