Consumption Tax

How do you all feel about this idea.


Greenspan, Consumption Tax

Might be tough to implement it, but it seems like a good idea.

Great Idea, it rewards people who save and invest their money there by generating economic growth.

It will also eliminate the tax loopholes. There should be a sliding scale for products. If you are poor and can only afford a used car your tax should be minimal or none-existent, but if you are buying a new Lamborghini you then can afford a higher tax rate.

This is fair because the government is not taking my hard-earned money away just because I work and giving it to someone else that doesn?t bother to get off his or her ass. It?s my choice, if I don?t want to pay a large tax, I buy something less expensive and invest my money that currently goes to entitlement programs. Then the more I invest, the richer I will be and then if I want, I can buy more expensive things and pay more tax.

I agree with Trav that it would be good to encourage saving.....

But the general rule is that you get less of what you tax and more of what you subsidize. This tax would certainly have a dampening effect on consumption. At least it would for ME, and some other people.

I never liked the idea of progressive income tax, it always seemed to be wrong somehow to penalize the most productive among us. Why work so much harder when the percent you get to keep for yourself goes down?

But I think as in the article a combination of income tax and consumption tax would be best. A consumption tax only would have too depressing an effect on the economy.

I'm for it. Wholeheartedly.

BUT...it'll be a horrific fight to implement. I mean think about it. You'd be putting a whole industry on unemployment. What industry??

Tax Lawyers and accountants.

I still fail to see the downside?

I'm squeamish about this. I think the idea is to use the National consumption tax to replace income tax. But what will happen is this opens the door for a new kind of tax that will never leave and continue to grow.

I'm not quite convinced about a consumption tax being "progressive" as AL asserted. Seems it's more like a flat tax and it would hurt the poor more. A sales tax hurts most those who have the least money. The wealthy have more discretionary income, which means they'll have to buy fewer boats and luxury cars...

"Seems it's more like a flat tax and it would hurt the poor more. A sales tax hurts most those who have the least money."

So what's the problem? Why would anyone argue against it? [img]graemlins/party.gif[/img]

Quote:

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Originally posted by LanDroid:
"Seems it's more like a flat tax and it would hurt the poor more. A sales tax hurts most those who have the least money."

So what's the problem? Why would anyone argue against it? [img]graemlins/party.gif[/img]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think the first $35k shouldn't be taxed for anyone. After that, maybe a flat tax. The poor pay such a low percentage of tax revenues anyway, so why bother?