Re: Drill Now for oil

On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:52:10 GMT, James Arthur
<bogusabdsqy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Spehro Pefhany wrote:
John Larkin wrote:

Spehro Pefhany wrote:

James Arthur wrote:

Richard The Dreaded Libertarian wrote:
James Arthur wrote:
John Larkin wrote:

Ah, reminds me of the classic techniques to increasing the GDP and
reducing unemployment:

1. Have ten million people dig holes, and another 10 million fill them.

2. Everybody washes their neighbor's dishes for $40 an hour.

That's wrong-headed. The problem is the *gap* between rich and poor.

And there are a lot fewer rich than poor, so, as a practical matter, I
propose a *maximum* wage. About, say, $40/hr.

Penalties for hard work and overtime.

That ought to make everyone happy.
Oh, feh. For almost 100 years they've been trying to tax the income of
the rich, who have consistently found loopholes.
Loopholes schmoopholes. Compare % of total taxes paid to the % of
population for each income group:

http://perotcharts.com/category/challenges/taxation/


We need to lose the income tax, and instead, tax _outgo_:

Buy a $300,000 house, pay $30,000 purchase tax.
Buy a $300,000,000 mansion, pay $30,000,000 purchase tax.
Buy $300,000,000,000 worth of stocks & bonds & commodities & crap,
pay $30,000,000,000 purchase tax. ;-)

It could be just that simple.

I'm down with it. The simplified accounting alone would
save Americans not less than 2 weeks' overhead a year.
That's a 4% GDP boost.

NOTE: I posted the above after reading "tax _outgo_" without
checking Rich's list. Buying stocks and bonds is NOT outgo,
it's investment, and must not be taxed.

Perhaps. How much of stock transactions is investing and how much is
speculating?



Anthing like that kind of a tax on financial markets would cause an
instant *depression*.

Just tax consumption. Investment, capital gains, interest, profit,
income, and savings aren't consumption. Only buying physical stuff is
consumption.

If people have money but don't spend it on stuff, why be jealous of
them?

John

Is buying an oscilloscope consumption?

Is it used to produce income? Then it's an investment.
No? Then it's consumption.

That's the current treatment anyhow.

Cheers,
James Arthur
.

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