Re: How many of you would support a poll tax in place of our current income tax?

xyzer_at_hotmail.com
Date: 03/29/05 

Date: 29 Mar 2005 14:55:33 -0800

xyzer@hotmail.com wrote:
> robert j. kolker wrote:
> > xyzer@hotmail.com wrote:
> >
> > > I don't see why having poor people ruins the poll tax idea.
True,
> in
> > > effect, the system would make it to where lots of poor people
> weren't
> > > participating in paying taxes, but if we as a society say that
that
> is
> > > morally the thing to do, then that's ok.
> >
> > It is The Regressive Tax from Hell. It is unrelated to ability to
> pay.
> > Give it up. It will never fly in a democracy.
> >
> > Bob Kolker
> >
> > >
>
> Apart from withholdings from wages or other income, I'm not sure
there
> wouldn't be many more people in this country who wouldn't have the
> "ability to pay" even with our current income tax system. Even with
> withholdings from wages and other income, there are many people who
go
> on payment plans with the IRS. So, is it our system of taxing
certain
> dollar flows that come in based on a certain (changing/progressive)
> percentage or is it withholdings that really is the big help when it
> comes to ability to pay?

Also, remember I'm not against people who are genuinely poor to go on
some sort of separate government plan in order to meet their basic
necessities in life, whatever we as a nation feel that moral level is
that people should be at. Thus, in effect, these poor folks would not
be paying taxes. I realize there would probably be other problems that
come up that perhaps I'm not considering.