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Journal HanzoSan's Journal: Why can't we make Democrats and Republicans happy? 45

Journal by HanzoSan

Why not just Abolish the income tax and raise the sales tax to compensate?

The poor who cannot afford luxury items will pay almost no taxes, the rich well, they will pay taxes based on how much they actually spend. If you benefit from what this country has to offer you pay more taxes.

Of course George Bush wants to cut taxes but why not take it one step further, why not Abolish income taxes altogether? The poor will cheer, and the rich will cheer.

Will anyone care if someone has to pay 50% tax on a plasma TV? How many of you actually own a lexus anyway and who cares if they cost 75% more due ot taxes when most of us cannot afford a $100,000 car in the first place?

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Why can't we make Democrats and Republicans happy? More

Why can't we make Democrats and Republicans happy?

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  • Moo (Score:2)

    by Chacham ( 981 ) *
    Why not just Abolish the income tax and raise the sales tax to compensate?

    That is a current theory. And needs to be tested. There are some downfalls though. Such as, the black market or people buying outside the country. Also, people don't realize how much they pay in taxes when it is spread out like it is. If it were all clumped into one sales-tax, people might complain.

    If you benefit from what this country has to offer you pay more taxes.

    What you are saying is correct, but that is a poor choice of w
  • Before you start suggesting tax policy, please become familiar with analysis of current and proposed policy [ctj.org] including actual numbers about who pays for different kinds of taxes [itepnet.org].

    In short, the rich pay very little sales tax as a percent of their income, especially in proportion to the average taxpayer. (You don't get to be rich by spending lots.) Most of their large purchases which any ordinary person might consider discretionary, tend to be tax-exempt items like real estate and municipal bonds. Dropping

    • especially in proportion to the average taxpayer. (You don't get to be rich by spending lots.)

      If the rich never spend, whats the point of becoming rich?

      I dont know why someone wants billions of dollars just so they can hoarde all the money up and stop the economy, but maybe alot of rich people truely dont spend, I still disagree with the income tax.

      Swedens system would never work here, we have conservatives in this country who would never allow that. I say try to make both sides happy and at least you

      • Swedens system would never work here, we have conservatives in this country who would never allow that.

        By "conservatives," you mean, of course, rich people and Fortune 500 companies willing to hire lobbyists in order to keep their taxes low. Because, after all, you can hire a lot of lobbyists for what you save in a percent difference in the top tax bracket. These people aren't particularly conservative, just greedy.

        I used to believe that progressivism was a series of compromises, but I'm actually so

  • For starters, poor people don't pay income tax as it is, so lets leave them out of this okay?

    Second, rich people pay a LOT in income tax. You don't think it's a enough, and maybe that's true in many cases, but it's still a lot more than if you only taxed them based on purchases.

    As far as the plasma tv and stuff goes.. Why tax the hell out of the middle class worker who's been saving up all year to get one for his/her (or their) family for christmas? It's not like rich people are buying plasma tvs like t


    • Poor people do pay income taxes.

      Why do I care what you have for christmas? I'm poor so I dont celebrate christmas.

      Why do I care if you cant buy a plasma TV now? I can pay rent now so of course I dont care. Maybe if there WERENT income taxes I'd be able to get an apartment in this state and pay rent without having roomates.
      • You just had to make replying difficult for me didn't you? =P

        Poor people do pay income taxes

        Very little. When I say poor, I don't mean your mother making 30,000 a year. I mean people who are barely making it on welfare and can't even make it to your mother's level. Your $10,000 income tax figure is doubted by me.. Does your mom not file for a refund? If she's making between 30,000 and 35,000 she should be paying less than 2,000 to the state. If she's not claiming any dependants add another 3,50



        • Very little. When I say poor, I don't mean your mother making 30,000 a year. I mean people who are barely making it on welfare and can't even make it to your mother's level. Your $10,000 income tax figure is doubted by me.. Does your mom not file for a refund? If she's making between 30,000 and 35,000 she should be paying less than 2,000 to the state. If she's not claiming any dependants add another 3,500. Depending on what she claims and uses as deductions, that federal tax could get knocked down a coupl
          • Dana Edwards, you are either full of shit or your mom just doesn't know how to file her tax returns. Which would make sense, because that's how you are too. Instead of doing something about your situation you'd rather bitch and moan and say that capitalism made your life this way and every solution is unacceptable to you. You will most likely always live in poverty because you are too damn stupid to get yourself out of it.
          • When did I say I agreed with taxes on food?
            When did you say it before now? Well, that's irrelevant because you say it again right here: we should have a higher sales tax. It's 2 sentences later in your paragraph. Sales tax applies to anything you sell (which means you pay it on anything you buy because the company will pass the burden along). If you say "sales tax" and don't exempt anything, it's covered. That's how the tax laws work. Also, if you want to just tax luxury items, that isn't a sales ta


            • ok whatever, an excise tax. You knew I was talking about a luxury tax.

              I'm not even going to argue with you about the state tax system of Boston since you arent from Boston.

              You will most likely always live in poverty because you are too damn stupid to get yourself out of it.

              I'm not even going to argue with you about the state tax system of Boston since you arent from Boston.

              You will most likely always live in poverty because you are too damn stupid to get yourself out of it.

              My goal in life is not t
              • Just an FYI.. We're not the same person, we even have different views on certain subjects, but I don't expect you to actually look. ;) If you don't want people to ready your journals, why the hell do you post them? You're one of the most unpopular (and popular) people on slashdot, and when I see you posting trash and I have a few minutes to post.. I'll do so ;) If you don't like it, feel free to play with your slashdot options and make it so you can't see my comments. I encourage other people to do t


                • I'm not THAT popular.

                  I dont care if you respond to my posts in the public forum, thats what its for, but why literally seek my opinion if you know in your heart you disagree with my point of view?

                  I admit I've done it a few times before, I made a few posts on "Gay nigger's" Journal or one of those racist dudes, but that only happened because the fool tried to call me a racist in public.

                  Go ahead and reply if you want, but I dont see why you enjoy reading what I have to say if I'm always wrong. I also dont
                  • First, you are pretty popular. Whether that popularity can be considered good populatity or bad, I don't know.. but everyone on /. knows who 'Hanzo' is. To get to the rest of what you said though.. My girlfriend asks the same thing about me as far as getting everyone's opinions and noticing all these little details, so I guess I'm abnormal. All my electives have been psy/soc related, even though I have no ambitions to use either of them in a work setting. I always wanted to be in a debate club or someth
              • ok whatever, an excise tax. You knew I was talking about a luxury tax.
                From your journal, you were talking about a sales tax. It didn't specify a luxury tax. This is why I wasted my time posting about sales taxes instead of excise taxes.

                I'm not even going to argue with you about the state tax system of Boston since you arent from Boston.
                That's good. Boston doesn't have a state tax system. It has a municipal tax system. Massachusets has a state tax system. Say what you mean, and know what you're say


                • And in doing so will get out of poverty. If you're living in poverty, by definition, you are spending all your time trying to meet survival needs. If you can meet said survival needs and still have time to do other things, you're not really in poverty.

                  Thats the mistake people make. I actually are setting my life up to be somewhat easy. I'll be poor, but you can be very good at living poor, you can live poor and stress free or you can live rich and be swamped with bills, it all depends on lifestyle.

                  Wro
                  • MY regressive tax system is actually something society would accept,
                    Your regressive tax system would kill the economy. Society may accept it, but not for long because it's not theoretically sound. It's worse than the Bush tax plan that you're so against.

                    second its part of my plan to be somewhat poor,
                    Somewhat poor is not the same as in poverty. An impoverished person can't meet their basic survival needs without extreme effort. A somewhat poor person is a totally different story.

                    Medicine is more im


                    • Somewhat poor is not the same as in poverty. An impoverished person can't meet their basic survival needs without extreme effort. A somewhat poor person is a totally different story.

                      After a while you learn where free food can be found, you learn where you can get cheap clothes, and poverty for one person is somewhat poor for another, you learn if you cant pay rent to live with roomates, you learn if you cant pay rent that way to buy a room in someones house to spend a few nights or weeks, you learn lit
                    • After a while you learn where free food can be found, you learn where you can get cheap clothes,
                      You learn how to get by, but you still expend all your resources on survival.

                      its time to just make medicine free for all and use taxes to extend life for all,
                      Ahh, but here is my problem. Medicine doesn't extend life for all. Medicine will reduce current pain while weakening your immune system and shorten your life because you've got poison building up inside your body. If the medical profession were reform
                    • Ahh, but here is my problem. Medicine doesn't extend life for all. Medicine will reduce current pain while weakening your immune system and shorten your life because you've got poison building up inside your body. If the medical profession were reformed then I could agree with you, but as it stands, drugs are given out to make you feel better instead of making you well, and I refuse to support people who intentionally do this to their fellow human beings without giving a shit about the fact that they're kil
                    • In the case of a diabetic, HIV infected person, or a person with certain viruses, it does extend life.
                      Agreed, but diabetics take insulin, which is a naturally-occuring (in your body) substance, generally. Virally-infected people take anti-viral medicines instead of anti-biotics, so they're not the drugs that really kill people. I concede that point. Not all medicine is bad, but I will continue to fight against the superfluous use of feel-good drugs being paid for by my money. Why? Because feeling good
                    • Internet use is a luxury item,

                      I disagree there, I dont think its a luxury, everyone needs access to the internet just to survive in this world and educate themselves to find a job. Without the internet I would have never had a chance in this world, some of us did not go to great schools and need the net more than others.

                      Reagan did a good job. "Reaganomics" went too far to the supply-sider end of the spectrum, but it was what we needed at the time because we'd been doing the demand-side thing for too lon
                    • everyone needs access to the internet just to survive in this world and educate themselves to find a job
                      Education is not a survival requirement. People can move out into the middle of nowhere and do subsistence farming for survival with virtually no education. Please not, I do not think that education is unimportant, and I do not think that subsistence farming is a good plan for most people. However, it's an option for survival that works without the internet.

                      For the first time ever we actually AGREE


                    • Education is not a survival requirement. People can move out into the middle of nowhere and do subsistence farming for survival with virtually no education. Please not, I do not think that education is unimportant, and I do not think that subsistence farming is a good plan for most people. However, it's an option for survival that works without the internet.

                      How do you learn to farm if you cant read the book on farming?

                      But I hartilly dislike the direction Dean wants to go. I think floundering around an
                    • How do you learn to farm if you cant read the book on farming?
                      Farming isn't exactly a complicated issue. You go to a farmer, and you ask him to teach you how to farm. You help him for free (except knowledge) and he teaches you how/when to plant. You grow your food at home. It's shitty, but it's possible.

                      I'd rather have Dean. Dean is fiscally responsible.
                      Right. He had a balanced budget in Vermont because he raised taxes through the roof in Vermont. That's hardly fiscally responsible. Fiscally resp


                    • Why are you comparing countries to terrorist groups?

                      Iran and Iraq were threats but they also were countries.Saudi Arabia is a threat but its a country.

                      The main reason they don't is that domestic groups are protected by the US Constitution, so they have due process rights. Those rights don't extend to foreigners who threaten our national security, so the military is employed to deal with them.

                      Not anymore, the patriot act and others laws have passed, Domestic terrorists can be treated like Al Qaeda, jus
                    • Why are you comparing countries to terrorist groups?
                      You can't go to war against terrorist groups. Countries go to war with countries. Countries arrest terrorist groups. I don't see how it could truly be otherwise, and the posse comitatus law says the military can't make arrests (and I'm guessing it excludes Military Police on bases.

                      Iran and Iraq were threats but they also were countries.Saudi Arabia is a threat but its a country.
                      What's the point? Iraq supported terrorists. Saddam Hussein paid thous
  • Why not just Abolish the income tax and raise the sales tax to compensate?
    Why not just abolish every other tax and implement a fair income tax structure?

    The poor who cannot afford luxury items will pay almost no taxes,
    And if we only had income tax they would pay almost no taxes as well (as they already pay $0.00 income tax).

    the rich well, they will pay taxes based on how much they actually spend.
    Good plan! Punish them for spending. Punish them for stimulating the economy! That's definitely the way
    • Why not just abolish every other tax and implement a fair income tax structure?

      Because we dont live in a fair world. In an unfair world we need an unfair tax system. This is the same arguement conservatives try to use on affirmative action, they say "well why not just abolish affirmative action, its unfair, etc etc"

      usually a white male says something like this, someone who knows exactly what its like. Point is, you cant talk about making the world fair unless you are prepared to make the world all the s

      • usually a white male says something like this, someone who knows exactly what its like. Point is, you cant talk about making the world fair unless you are prepared to make the world all the say fair, and not just fair for you. Getting rid of Affirmative Action makes things fair for you but unfair for everyone else. So why not make things fair for everyone? This is not something I'll argue or debate with, I only debate when someone pretends they are making things fair when they really are just making it fai

        • edit (Score:1)

          by AceM2 ( 655504 )
          Yes, I know, because at one time I made should be Yes, I know because at one time I made around $13,000 and I got almost everything back from both state and federal.


          • What state did you live in? Definately wasnt Boston, if you made $13,000 here you'd be living in a homeless shelter or in a tent.

            • I never meant to imply that I was out living on my own at that time. I was working a part time (38 hour) job, and after paying for groceries to help out at home I was saving every penny so I wouldn't end up having to complain on slashdot that I can't afford rent while I'm in college. As it is, I'm in college now and working too so that I hopefully won't ever have to say that I had to rely on the government or mom and dad for my tuition or transportation.
        • Ahh I see.. So.. Affirmative action makes the system fair for everyone, right? I knew you often made stupid hypocritical statements, but turning hypocritical mid paragraph is sad. You cannot be fair with a system that benefits certain social groups rather than making it even. The thing is, rather than say affirmative action isn't fair, you choose to attack the average conservative white male.. Even though people of other races and political background criticize affirmative action.

          No,l said we should eith

          • No,l said we should either be all the way unfair or all the way fair, when did I say affirmative action was fair?

            Yes, but you used people saying affirmative action is bad as people who just want to make the system fair for themselves. Since now you say it's bad, you are redeemed =P

            Taxes create jobs, it pays for public education, it pays for community service, it pays for jobs that arent profitable but which must be done. Taxes actually build the internet, roads, pipes and other important networks

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