Ideas on a National Sales Tax

[Nathan Brazil]

Now, I actually think a national sales tax is a good idea, if the taxes are allocated per type of item.Â*Â*

Taxes on drugs (the recreational kind) could be targetted to pay for police, FDA, rehab, and morgues.

Taxes on drugs (the prescription kind)...there shouldn't be any taxes on necessary medications.

Taxes on cars, new, could finance the National Transportation Safety Board (along with taxes on freight, air traffic, and other things that use the roads and skies and rails and waterways).

Taxes on cars, used, late model, could finance alternative fuel research, if you think government should be financing private sector research.

Tax on cars, used, old, should be limited to registration fees.Â*Â*Set ceiling price seperating the two types of used cars.Â*Â*Use part of this money for bullets to shoot all salesmen that call them "pre-owned".

Etc, etc.Â*Â*Try to make the object have some involvement with the purpose of the tax, to make them as close to user fees as possible.

Now, there's lots of things the government does that don't seem to have any relation to items sold in the market place.Â*Â*They also don't seem to have any constitutional or moral backing.Â*Â*So stop funding them.Â*Â*The less the government spends, the more workable any sales tax proposal becomes.

Also, if specific programs are tied to specific types of goods, the people can decide that Congress has it's head up it's collective ass and not buy those things, and thus defund that program.

[Nitrus]

Someone of your ideas wouldnt be fair to people who simply cant afford new cars etc...

[Nathan Brazil]

If they can't afford a new car, I'm sure they won't feel discriminated against if they can't pay the tax on a new car. I bet they'd have other things to worry about.

[Mayberry]

Someone of your ideas wouldnt be fair to people who simply cant afford new cars etc... Relieving me of my monthly tax burden would allow me to FINALLY afford a newer car. That's basically what the government steals from me every month. A car payment's worth.

[firefox]

Why not just stop taxing people, instead of just reshuffling the cards, so to speak? After all, a sales tax is just as bad as an income tax at the same %, if you think about it. If I have to earn/spend X+y% to buy a good or service, what difference does it make whether it is front or back loaded?

[Nathan Brazil]

Why not just stop taxing people, instead of just reshuffling the cards, so to speak? After all, a sales tax is just as bad as an income tax at the same %, if you think about it. If I have to earn/spend X+y% to buy a good or service, what difference does it make whether it is front or back loaded?


Because you can choose not to purchase the item the sales tax is attached to. And the money saved can earn interest tax free.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

Why not just stop taxing people, instead of just reshuffling the cards, so to speak? After all, a sales tax is just as bad as an income tax at the same %, if you think about it. If I have to earn/spend X+y% to buy a good or service, what difference does it make whether it is front or back loaded?


While I love your basic premise, just stop taxing people, even I can't go that far.

A sales tax is really not as bad as an income tax. If there's NO income tax you're only taxed on what you actually purchase and/or consume in the sales tax/fair tax arena.

That way someone making $50,000, instead of being taxed out of $15,000, can invest or save that money for retirement. The remaining $35,000 can be used to live on.

Any fair tax/sales tax idea I've seen wouldn't apply to food, clothing, utilities, housing etc. so they're truly only taxed on what they buy that isn't a necessity. They'd actually come out HUGE.

However you're right, front end/back end taxes, that's the debate.

Back end taxation is more even handed IMHO because consumer behavior can more effectively determine tax consequences someone wishes to endure as opposed to the income model which nothing more than legalized theft.

[Mayberry]

Back end taxation is more even handed IMHO Absolutely. "Low income" folks essentially live tax free, used items being tax exempt. The guy buying the $4 million Gulfstream jet pays a large tax bill on it. Fair as fair can be.

[firefox]

Only if you're a Marxist who supports graduated taxation! (sarcasm)

Seriously though, if the poor can get away with it, why can't the middle class? If the feds stopped the wars and domestic welfare spending (60-80% of which is wasted/embezelled, btw), there wouldn't be much left to pay for, would there?

Besides, any taxation of this kind is really irrelevant, if you factor in the fact that we have the Federal Reserve banking system that's fractional reserve and unbacked by gold/silver or anything else. This really is a tax, and hurts the poor and middle class MUCH more than the rich. After all, if you can save another 3% in no income tax, and the interest rate is at 8%, you're still loosing out in reality.

NOTE: One way to avoid this problem is to use alternative currencies and banking organizations, such as the Liberty Dollar (http://www.libertydollar.org), etc.

[Mayberry]

if the poor can get away with it, why can't the middle class? With fair tax, they can. Just don't buy new stuff!

[firefox]

Wouldn't that hurt the economy by encouraging people not to make purchases?

[Nathan Brazil]

Wouldn't that hurt the economy by encouraging people not to make purchases?


I'd be pretty sure that encouraging people to be thrifty and rewarding them for saving their money would be less damaging that what'll happen when the bills for today's spending finally come due.

A friend of mine bought tens of thousands of dollars of stock on margin. He didn't live extravagently, but he leveraged what savings he had into tech stocks. Then the NASDAQ crashed and the margin calls came in. Since he lived in a trailer, he had to borrow $80,000 from his parents to cover it.

We don't have a mommy to run to when the margin call for our present debt comes in, and it will come in some day.

[firefox]

Exactly. Don't borrow to speculate in the stock market it's too dangerous! What do you think about the inflation tax? In one sense, you could say that regular taxation is really irrelevant if you can just use all the fiat currency first, then leave everyone else with the devalued currency after you're done raping it.