Letters to the Editor
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44 % tax
It is stupid. It is dishonest.
Most importantly, it is the most unamerican tax I have ever heard of. Since the onset of taxes, the compact in America has always been that the rich pay more. They get more from this society, and they should pay more, much more than now.
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Actually, the whole thing makes me giddy
This fruitbatty tax plan makes Obama a shoo-in.
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umm, sajwan?
I know this has been pointed out already, but I know that there are thousands, no make that millions, of people out there that simply do not understand the concept of marginal tax rates.
You wrote:
"The reality is the tax system as it is today is unfair. If you are married filing jointly and your income is $63,700 you pay 15%, if you make $63,701 you pay 25%. A 10% tax liability swing for a buck. This is fair - how?"
The 25% is only on that last buck, hon. $63,700 is still only at 15%.
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@lisaMC
Please explain how 23% of $100 is $30.
Because that's a GIANT WHOPPING LIE that is at the core of the "fair" tax and colors any other argument in it's favor as dishonest.
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Would We Pay 23% Tax When We Buy Stocks, Bonds, and So On?
Huh? No? Why not?
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Just a thought
I apologize if someone else has mentioned this already, but perhaps Huckabee has other reasons for advocating the FairTax mess. Would non-profits still be classified as non-profits? I haven't researched the FairTax enough to answer this question, which is why I am asking. I wonder if churches would be able to support individual candidates (and parties) openly if the IRS no longer functioned in the way that it currently does. Does anyone know?
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Who said this?
on the new, reduced cost of items because business isn't taxed under FairTax - thus lowering retail prices by 20% to 30%
Retail prices are not set so that they can cover the tax. They are set according to what people are willing to pay for a given product. If you mean that prices will drop because demand will go down because people will stop buying things, well yeah, maybe prices will drop, which might not matter because you might have lost your job due to the mad rush to buy even cheaper shit from China.
Get your head out of the clouds, "fair" tax supporters, and you too, Ron Paulsies. The best way to generate the kind of revenue we need for important services is the plain ol' increase of tax burden on the rich, who, despite the absurd, twisted Reagan-era horseshit being spewed, will not be scared away from success by having to contribute a greater percentage. There are a few relatively minor tweaks that would go a long way.
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The cost if items WOULD NOT CHANGE AT ALL
RE: "The FairTax removes a 22% imbedded income tax that is
already a part of everythig we buy. When you remove
that, the 23% sales tax will be very close to what
products and services cost now..."
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You really don't understand capitalists, do you. I get paid by rate, for example, I get 3 for every shirt I sew (not my job, but just an example). My pay rate is $3/shirt. Well, along comes a new technology that allows me to make shirts faster, everyone can make shirts faster! Where before I could only sew 100 shirts a day, now I can sew 150! So the boss decides to reduce the rate at which I am paid...no, NOT by a third, but by HALF. So, I'm actually getting a pay CUT with this new technology, which SUPPOSEDLY (my boss keeps telling me) is going to make me earn MORE, 'cause I'm so much more productive! No, not THAT productive. Not humanly possible, and the boss knows it!
$3/shirt x 100 shirts a day = $300 (starting wage before new technology introduced)
$1.50/shirt x 150 shirts a day = $225 (wages DROP with addition of new technology)
$2/shirt x 150 = $300 (wages the same with new technology)
The way this relates to fair tax is, people are assuming companies are going to lower their prices IN THE SAME AMOUNT that they are no longer paying the "imbedded income tax." WRONG. They may lower their prices a LITTLE, but certainly not equal...why, when they can make a buck off of the fair tax?
Wake up and smell the capitalist coffee.
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Internet Economy
With the internet in the embryonic stage why would Huckabee want to tax it? I would think keeping track of all the economic activity on the internet would be an insane idea.
The Fair Tax punishes the advancement of our economy.
http://savingcommunities.org/issues/taxes/sales/destroyscommerce.html
http://www.progress.org/gaffney/salestax.htm
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A Norquist stalking horse....
A system like Huckabee's that slams a huge tax in your face 10 times a day, every time you buy a paper or a cup of coffee, would be the most loathed tax in the world no matter what an individual's tax rate ended up being in the end.
This may considered a feature, not a bug, by 'Fair Tax' advocates
One oft-touted feature of sales-VAT-consumption taxes is that they are highly visible, and therefore highly resented.
If your goal is to shrink government till it's small enough to be drowned in the bathtub, the resentment at government per se generated by a swingeing salet tax is a plus, not a minus.
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The absurdity of 23%
"The FairTax would add 30 cents to every dollar spent, but since 30 cents is 23 percent of $1.30, the FairTaxers call the rate 23 percent."
Consider the same argument but with different numbers to see how absurd and dishonest this 23% calculation is.
Assume that the tax rate is not 30% or 23% but 1000%. Then, an item that cost $100 pre-tax, would now cost $1100 - $100 plus $1000 tax. But if you described this 1000% tax using the same method the FairTaxers have used to arrive at 23%, the 1000% tax would be $1000 of the $1100, or about 90%. So they would try to convince you that the 1000% tax is really only 90%!! 90% sure feels better than 1000%, doesn't it?
Hey, it's the same math, just different inputs.
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The new Black Market
The ultimate result of the FairTax would be the instant creation of a huge black market for, well, anything that can be sold from the back of a van. At a tax rate of 57% there would be an enormous incentive to dodge taxes for everyone, especially those hit hardest by the tax. With the current payroll deduction system it's quite a bit more work to get out of paying taxes.