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To: Terry Maloney who wrote (245627)	6/15/2003 12:31:09 AM
From: Oblomov	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

I definitely agree on the validity of corporate taxes. I also think that a VAT or consumption tax is a good idea, assuming that it supplants rather than supplements the income tax, and that food and a few other necessities are excluded. I think it is very bad policy to design a tax system to be punitive of productive individual behavior that benefits everyone, such as earning money, investing, and saving. The idea of taxes as user fees is appropriate, I think. For example, because corporations in the US are granted "privileges and immunities" of natural citizenship via the prevailing interpretation of the 14th Amendment, they should be liable for a tax. Another example is that the need for police protection exists in part to defend property rights. Justifiably, property taxes are simply a form of user fee for this police protection and other benefits that accrue to property owners. IOW, taxes should be collected at the source of the benefit conferred, not through politically motivated, indirect means such as the income tax.