Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site SCINEWS.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!mcnc!rti-sel!SCINEWS!todd From: todd@SCINEWS.UUCP (Todd Jones) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.taxes Subject: Re: Tax reform (another screwing, without vaseline) Message-ID: <136@SCINEWS.UUCP> Date: Fri, 14-Jun-85 18:44:41 EDT Article-I.D.: SCINEWS.136 Posted: Fri Jun 14 18:44:41 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 19-Jun-85 03:13:45 EDT References: <361@cmu-cs-edu1.ARPA> <985@trwatf.UUCP> Organization: SCI Systems, Research Triangle Park, NC Lines: 79 Xref: watmath net.flame:10614 net.taxes:857 > >> [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. > > > 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" Gee, I naively thought government exists to serve people, not the other way around. Thanks for straightening me out! ||||| || || [ O-O ] Todd Jones \ ^ / {decvax,akgua}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp!todd | _ | |___| FLAME ME IF YOU DARE!