Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site trwatf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!grkermi!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!trwatf!root From: root@trwatf.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame,net.taxes Subject: Re: Tax reform (another screwing, without vaseline) Message-ID: <985@trwatf.UUCP> Date: Wed, 12-Jun-85 08:49:53 EDT Article-I.D.: trwatf.985 Posted: Wed Jun 12 08:49:53 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 14-Jun-85 01:04:41 EDT References: <361@cmu-cs-edu1.ARPA> Reply-To: root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith) Organization: TRW Advanced Technology Facility, Merrifield VA. Lines: 71 Xref: watmath net.flame:10501 net.taxes:850 >> [Lord Frith] >> You're being taxed worse than a rich man. Under Reagan's proposal, the >> rich will make out like gangbusters. My qualm is that I see little >> reason to tax ANYONE at a different rate than anyone else... the >> so-called flat-rate taxation system. Since when is there a correlation >> between a person's income and the burden he places on state and >> federally funded works? If Raegan wanted a moral and just tax he would >> propose a flat-rate tax. > > What about the fact that there is a certain amount of money that every > person really needs? If it costs, lets say, $7,500 a year for a person to > subsist, does it make sense that a family of three, making 15,000 a year, > should pay the government out of their subsistance money, while the Yuppie > making $100,000 a year should only be paying taxes out of his cocaine money > instead??? No that doesn't make sense at all. Now I could be macheavellian and claim that these people actually don't deserve to survive because they don't work hard enough... their inability to make money a direct result of their lack of initiative and skill. Surplus wages - a direct result of harder work or work with more leverage - pays for sweet cocaine. I could argue this... but I'm not going to try because this really isn't talking about the real world. It talks about an abstract economy with little consideration to non-economic factors. It's a useful object lesson, though, because from this we learn that people don't eat if they don't work. Okay back to your point. I guess we could start the zero tax bracket at a number dependent upon the number of personal exemptions one has, and perhaps exemptions for the blind and elderly as we have now... although I think serious consideration should be given to the selection of these exemptions. Why the blind? Why the elderly? Why not some other group that needs the exemption as much? Notice that this system could be expanded into MANY catagories of people with varying needs. Problem with this is that there's no way for the federal government to track so much information. Abuses would be legion. Tracking how much you earn from your employer is far easier for the IRS. That's why they base their taxation on income. > The way that you're talking, it even seems that you'd prefer if people > were paying the same amount no matter what. That would be even more > ridiculous. Not at all ridiculous when you understand what taxation really is. You the taxpayer are employing the federal government to provide various services to the general whole of society. Why should a rich person give more when he consumes no more and no fewer services than a poor person? Fair is fair. It SOUNDS better and is emotionally more appealing to make the rich person pay more because, you say, he has more that he can spare. After all, how much money does he really need to survive? It doesn't take $100,000 to feed and clothe yourself. Yet, is it fair to take away what he has earned with his brain or his hands just because you say he doesn't need it to feed himself? No. He deserves as much as he has earned. The government deserves to take ONLY it's due, and no more, for the services it provides. > I think that if we tried this flat tax rate system, we would all be in deep > shit, when the poor people suddenly realize what's happening to them. That depends on how much they earn, what the tax rate is, and what the ZBA for his situation is. Would the poor be organized enough to attempt a violent insurrection? I wonder. -- UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root - Lord Frith ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO "Give a man a horse... and he thinks he's enormous"