Re: taxes?
Originally posted by jgregory:<br /> I keep hearing everyone going for the flat tax, one of the provisions of the flat tax is no deduction for interest on your mortgage. Everyone raise there hand here, who is for that.
The theory behind the flat tax is to make it more fair, and in turn would lower your over all taxes, or at least redistribute what you do pay, after all your deductions.<br /><br />I am sorry if I offend anyone but this self-righteous attitude that the poor are poor because they want to be is total BS. Some are unable to rise above their circumstances. There are only so many people who can work for $25.00 an hour, $100K a year, or become a pro-athlete. Yet we still want someone to ask "Do you want fries with that?" for $6-$7/hr. You can say that those low wage jobs are for the young and recent high-school graduates. My wife and I worked very hard to get to where we are, we have benefited from social programs at times, but were always working to pay something back in taxes too. We know what it is like to worry about if we were going to be able to pay the rent, let alone now a house payment. We are not well off now, I am only 5 months into my new business venture, but my point is,
NO PROGRAM or change of attitude as a society will end poverty in this country. We will always have those who were cruising down the road doing well and BOOM! something happens, sudden death of a partner, factory closes up, cancer or other catastrophic illness, and all of a sudden life is heck, bills go unpaid, money is non-existent or tight at least. So requiring tax be paid on the bare essentials of life would be cruel to the poor, who typically pay little in tax after deductions.<br /><br />I say we should have a consumption based tax, or a sales tax, based on Michigan's (and other states are similar). We do not tax food, or prescriptions. We do not tax house payments, insurance payments or rent, or services. In essence Michigan exempts the necessities of existence, save for some services. Prepared foods are taxed as they are viewed a luxury. Curious distinction, go into the local 7-11 and buy a sub sandwich out of the deli case, it is not taxed, heat it in the microwave and it is "prepared on premises" and therefore is taxed. Now if the 7-11 made the sandwich then it most probably is taxed. <br /><br />I say set a flat federal sales tax, leave all state sales taxes alone, the elimination of the federal income tax will offset the FST. Exempt all necessities of life such as food, medicine, rent, house payments, etc. Car purchases should be taxed, a car {b}IS NOT{/b] a necessity of life. It may feel like it, but many people survive without, but no one survives without food. If we want to be especially generous provide a tax return where the FST paid throughout the year can be refunded if you earn below a certain limit, but then we would have to save ALL of our receipts, what would the retailers do then?<br />Under a consumption based tax like this, the poor who spend a greater percentage of their income on food and necessities would pay less tax, but would still pay the same percentage on their {i]disposable[/i] income. Who knows, maybe they would be inclined to save it instead of spend it due to the higher sales taxes. The more well-off would pay a lower percentage of their income on necessities and therefore would pay more tax, but would still pay the same amount on {i]their[/i] disposable income. At that point it would come down to you would have a choice as to how much tax you paid. You would decide by how much you spent on non-necessity items. Chang eis hard, changeis uncomfortable, and change from a long standing habit is very unpopular. We hate the current system, but we are comfortable in its abuses, and are scared to change the status quo.<br /><br />Great dialogue guys
, except maybe for the one anti-
pinko commie socialist attiude spew. The name-calling and demeaning attiude is getting old.
