Greg G. wrote:
Charlie Self said:

All these flat tax and simple tax ideas work nicely on paper. I'm not
at all sure they will work any better in practice than the horrendous
and untrackable mishmash we already have. Then again, if a few simple
objections, as above, can be answered, they sure as hell cannot be
worse.

They work on paper because the voodoo priests... er... "economists"
who devise such schemes are beholden to the ones who pay for said
research. They game the system now, and you can bet they will game the
system should it be altered. But you're right, Charlie; almost any
truly equitable scheme would be a vast improvement over the current
system of loopholes and imbalances.

The thing that bothers me most about the "Fair Tax" proposals are the
people who devised it (a herd of Texas millionaires), and the

Oh no! Millionaires were involved. Gasp! Clearly, we'd be better
off listening the Lazy Larry or Connie The Crackwhore when it comes
to economic ideas ... not the people who actually know how to create
wealth.

proclivity of the well heeled to bypass said taxes - bartering would
become the new untaxed currency amongst the well connected.

This is so absurd on its face that I had to read it repeatedly to
see if you were serious. I would love to see the day that
the Eeeeeeeeeevillll Millionaires "barter" their way into an expensive
house, exclusive car, or private jet. BTW, the bartering problem
*already* exits among the mooching middle class that
already wants everyone else to pay for its goods and still works
on a "cash" basis whenever it can hire illegals or other entry level
workers for gardening, home improvement or construction.

(Like there's not enough good ol' boy "favor" swapping ongoing at
present - particularly in political circles. They'll simply groom it
to new depths of impropriety.)

This is likely true but you have root cause all confused here.
The reason there is political favor swapping has nothing to do
with just *how* taxes are collected. It has to do with how *much*
the Federal government, especially, is asked to "do for the sheeple".
The Feds - without any Constitution permissions - have created a
third-wheel to the economy that gives political vermin and their
hangers-on a reason to raid the coffers of the government: There
is a *lot* of money to be stolen. Get the government back to its
Constitutionally mandated size, and people won't be so eager to
waste time in Washington D.C. fighting over a much smaller treasury.
As I said, this has nothing to do with how we collect taxes and far
more to do with how the population at large uses government as a proxy
to raid each others' wallets.

FWIW,

Greg G.

Full Disclosu I am not remotely a millionaire, but I know quite a
few, and have worked for at least one of the mega-wealthy titans of
industry. The worst malfunction of the Eeeeeeeeeevil Rich People
doesn't remotely compare in scale or amount to the regular pillaging
I see my middle-class neighbors voting for, come election day...


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Tim Daneliuk
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