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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ratan lal who wrote (43173)	3/5/2001 11:56:38 PM
From: BWAC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

<having said that, I think the sales tax or value added tax is the only way to collect more taxes from people who use the most products and services in the country.> You think the poor people have it bad with the current tax code, then enact one that taxes only purchases. Yikes! Are you going to somehow exempt or lower the rate on such necessities as food, clothing, shelter, medical? Assuming everybody has about the same basic needs for those things you would really tax the poor in excess of what they pay now. Inversely the sales based tax would do great for a very rich person who saved the majority of their income. But if you spend the majority of it on necessities then such a sales tax surely isn't good. I just want to point out that although our current tax code is cumbersome, clunky, and full of special items and preferences; they most all have been put there to promote certain social outcomes. Like encourage home ownership, education, etc. But then again there is that built in marriage penalty, so who the heck knows. <g> The current tax code came together over many years. And it somewhat serves its purpose well. The problem lies more in the rates of tax, not the code and rules themselves. Its all about the rate, and excess/wasted government spending. Cut some of that out, then the tax rate can go down. But beware the perils of nixing the whole tax code in favor of another scheme.

To: ratan lal who wrote (43173)	3/6/2001 12:30:14 AM
From: Pete Young	Respond to of 70976

OT ratan, while I sympathize with your observation that government takes 50% of our income, I wonder what would be the effect on those not in that tax bracket. Over 75% of Americans pay more in payroll (SS) tax than fed income tax. Be pretty rough to be making $15k/year and have the government take 1/2 of it because you are spending (consuming) all of it to live. Consumption taxes are a fancy name for letting that minority that benefit the most out our society off very lightly and throwing the burden of maintaining the system onto the majority of people who are least able to benefit from it because of their lack of capital. Bad enough that the lower middle class is staggering under the twin blows dealt by technology changes and globalization...lets not tax 'em to death also.