🚀 go-pugleaf

Scripsit bjbjbjbj@ix.netcom.com(Bill Johnson ) :

 # >:1. A national sales tax would have to be in the order of 30 to 40% on
 # >:top of state and local sales tax to produce enough revenue to replace
 # >:the present income tax. This high a tax would be a huge incentive for
 # >: cheating and evasion requiring a bureaucratic army of auditors and
 # >: enforcers.
 # >
 # >Only 18% if there were no exceptions.
 # -----------------------
 # 
 # And what if there are exceptions?  If there are no exceptions, then the
 # poor will be taxed at an 18% rate, far in excess of what they pay
 # today.

Which is the sort of "reasoning" that will make "exceptions" inevitable -- and
we'll wind up with the same grab-bag of politically-motivated special-interest
legislation we have today. My, what progress.

 # I keep seeing people post low national sales tax rates, such as above. 
 # What is the basis for these estimates?  The same amount of revenue must
 # be raised as today, so I think the rates must be higher.

"The same amount of revenue must be raised as today" only if the government
continues squandering our money as foolishly as today. One hopes that this will
not be the case.

 # So maybe when all is said and done, the sales tax rates will be 50%,
 # especially if certain goods are exempted from sales tax, which they
 # would have to be or the lower income people in the US would be screwed.

Perhaps that will clue people in to how much of their earnings are being sucked
up by the parasites in government. Perhaps it will motivate them to reduce the
size (and thereby the appetite) of government. Not necessarily a bad thing.

================================================================================
"Government is not in the business of producing results. Government is in the   
 business of producing government: passing laws, changing rules, setting up     
 bureaucracies. This is why government is always more interested in problems
 than solutions."
     -- P.J. O'Rourke, ALL THE TROUBLE IN THE WORLD
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Tiomoid M. of Angle                                             tangle@iadfw.net