Oh good heavens help us...
Aug. 11th, 2004 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kellinatorThe latest idea from Herr Shrub: Let's get rid of the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax.
This is the worst idea I've heard from the Idiot-in-Chief since... oh, who's counting?
I don't know a lot about economics, but I come from Tennessee, home of one of the highest sales taxes in the nation (including on food, and yes I do mean groceries). And sales taxes are definitely regressive.
Do the math. Say a person needs x amount of food to survive, taxed at 8%. For Bill Gates that tax is nothing; for the average middle-class American it's an 8% jump in the food bill. Talk about your cost of living increase...
I guess this is his way of saying he doesn't think he's put enough of the tax burden on the middle and lower class.
And if this post pisses you off, I don't give a fuck.
EDIT: Excellent article from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
resipsaloquitor:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/11/news/economy/election_tax/index.htm?cnn=yes
This is the worst idea I've heard from the Idiot-in-Chief since... oh, who's counting?
I don't know a lot about economics, but I come from Tennessee, home of one of the highest sales taxes in the nation (including on food, and yes I do mean groceries). And sales taxes are definitely regressive.
Do the math. Say a person needs x amount of food to survive, taxed at 8%. For Bill Gates that tax is nothing; for the average middle-class American it's an 8% jump in the food bill. Talk about your cost of living increase...
I guess this is his way of saying he doesn't think he's put enough of the tax burden on the middle and lower class.
And if this post pisses you off, I don't give a fuck.
EDIT: Excellent article from
resipsaloquitor:http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/11/news/economy/election_tax/index.htm?cnn=yes
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: here's the problem I'm having with all this
Date: 2004-08-12 10:01 pm (UTC)Poverty spending:
I simply don't understand it. I really, really, really don't. Everyone I know is poor. I am surrounded by very, very, exceptionally poor people, including myself. Nearly all of them make unbelievably bad choices with their money. They all purchase cable, have big tvs, drive expensive cars, buy expensive clothes and the list goes on.
I don't think this is going to stop the poor from spending. I'm hoping it will encourage them to buy more used goods. The smart poor always have. Thrifting is great fun, and a life necessity if you got no dough.
I don't expect corporations to become philanthropic. I expect them to want to sell their product, and if they can drop their prices 3% and still get all those perks you mentioned I bet they'll do it. And I bet the next company will drop 4%, and so forth. I don't know that it'll ever come down further than 10-15%... It seems a lot to ask or expect or hope for, but some drop, yeah. Corporations like making money, if they think they can increase market share while not increasing expenditure, they usually do it.
The smart companies will take this as a way to reinvest into their business and go even further.
I don't expect many businesses to be that smart.