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


royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> On 30 Mar 2005 00:10:47 -0800, xyzer@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> >royls@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >> On 29 Mar 2005 11:56:31 -0800, xyzer@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >>
> >> >I don't see why having poor people ruins the poll tax idea.
> >>
> >> They can't pay it. That means the rest must pay more. That means
> >the
> >> amount must be increased. That means even fewer will be able to
pay.
> >
> >The rest (non-poor) already pay more, so is that necessarily make it
> >worse than our current system?
>
> ?? If it's going to end up being like the current system, what's the
> point of changing it?

Take the present value of a quarter of a trillion dollars every year,
to doomsday, that's spent on tax compliance, and that's reason enough
for me. True, perhaps this compliance cost could be done away with in
other ways besides a poll tax, but this is one way in which the poll
tax would be like our current system.

>
> >> And everyone looks at the cutoff and thinks, "If I just went on
> >> vacation until I made less money than that...."
> >
> >does that happen with the current welfare system?
>
> You better believe it does.
>

Yeah, I had an idea... but I'm talking about the tax system... all I
said was that I would not let poor people starve or go without what we
as a society says we think people should morally be able to have.


> >ALl I'm proposing is
> >something like the current welfare system, but I guess I am kind of
> >ignorant of the current welfare system.
>
> And taxation.
>

I actually know plenty of the plethora of details found in the IRC
code, but we're talking in general terms about progressive taxation
(based on taxation of certain nominal income flows), so if I'm ignorant
about taxation I don't see how it's all that relevant.


> >> >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.
> >>
> >> Look, xyzer, it's a Known Dumb Idea. Just let it go at that, OK?
> >
> >yeah, maybe you're right... but take the present value of all the
> >billions of dollars that goes into tax preparation and just energy
> >spent on tax compliance period from now until doomsday and I think
the
> >world would be better off with some sort of poll tax. I think the
> >benefits would be worth it.
>
> ?? But the complexities of the current system are driven by the fact
> that the wrong thing is being taxed. That would not change with a
> poll tax.
>
> -- Roy L

Why is it wrong? There will never be a system which you can classify
as being 100% fair.

.

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