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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel W. Koehler who wrote (4057)	8/24/2000 9:43:38 AM
From: Jim S	Respond to of 13062

What I like most about your plan, Daniel, is that it enlists the most apathetic members of our society on our side. And if there is an advantage to numbers in politics, particularly those people who follow without thought, we'd get all those folks too lazy, too stupid, or too financially incompetent to pay their lump-sum tax bill each year. We'd become a majority party overnight. <g> Seriously though, the very effects you cite are the very reasons why the government will never let it happen. It would overturn the entire tax scheme, and the politicians' power. Similarly, even if the withholding tax were to continue, but an entire month's withholding were to come out of only one check per month, it would get the point across. If someone were to get paid weekly, and the last check of each month went entirely to taxes (or, more likely, the last check-and-a-half), leaving a net 'zip' for the payee, I suspect most folks would let their dissatisfaction be known. <evil g> That said, while I agree with your premise on the taxation issues, my overriding concern is less the amount of tax or even how it is collected; my major concern is the complexity of the tax code. When average people are unable to do their own taxes, and an entire industry is created of scribes trained to speak to the royal treasury, something is basically wrong. Further, when people are prosecuted because neither they, nor the representatives of the royal treasury themselves, could understand the tax code, I understand why Louis XIV got his head chopped off. When searching for government abuses of the citizenry, one doesn't have to look far. jim