On Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:56:13 -0600, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:44:01 -0800, wrote:

On Feb 3, 6:29Â*am, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
The title tells the story.

http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB1000142405274870383700457501342406064946
4.html

The Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2010.

Joe Gwinn

Certainly true in Oregon. The recent vote on higher taxes showed the
measures lost in all counties, EXCEPT those with the largest number of
active and retired government employees, and their family and relatives.
We are screwed.
snip
========
If you are going to rely on broad based taxes such as income and
sales, one of the basic requirements is that the bulk of the
people must have adequate income to tax and to spend.

After the select few individuals and corporations gathered up all
the productive assets and cut the employees wages and benefits,
who did they think was going to pay the taxes? Why would you
think the U.S. would be any different than Mexico or Haiti in
this regard?

One suggestion is to set the graduated income tax brackets as
multiples of the previous years median wage, with steeply
increasing rates for higher multiples, and very low rates for sub
multiples. {The general rule should be that everyone files a tax
return and pays something, even if only a dollar or two to keep
the reported median wage accurate.] This has several very good
effects, including raising the income tax rates on the
responsible individuals every time they cut the wages/benefits.

Another suggestion is to specify governmental compensation,
including judges and other elected officials as a multiplier of
the previous years median wage. This would insure there is no
wage creep and a downturn in the economy is shared by everyone.


Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).