The US tax system is overly complex, inefficient, fraught with loopholes, unfair, invasive, and generally just plain bad. It's time for a change. It's past time for a change.
The time has come to enact the Fair Tax. Essentially, this is a national sales tax, intentionally designed to produce the same amount of revenue for the government as the current tax system does. It also includes a rebate which is designed to ensure that no American will pay tax on basic necessities, by reimbursing the tax on spending at the poverty level1. It closes the loophole of people who don't file or who don't claim all of their income. It abolishes the IRS. It even maintains our current Social Security and Medicare benefits (for what that's worth). The more I look at it, the more sense it makes.
Read through the FAQ. Get a copy of the book. Read it. Contact your representatives in Washington and encourage them to support the bill.
It's time to fix the US tax system.
ETA: If you write a blog entry today about tax system reform (related to the Fair Tax or not), post a link to it in the comments and I'll include it in the following list.
Bloggers Speak Out About Tax Reform:
[1] FAQ #3 How does the rebate work? All valid Social Security cardholders who are U.S. residents receive a monthly rebate equivalent to the FairTax paid on essential goods and services, also known as the poverty level expenditures. The rebate is paid in advance, in equal installments each month. The size of the rebate is determined by the Department of Health & Human Services’ poverty level guideline multiplied by the tax rate. This is a well-accepted, long-used poverty-level calculation that includes food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, etc.
Profile
drmellow- Greg Cohoon
- Knitting Daddy
Comments
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0844742236/sr=8-1/qid=1145285969/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1378452-1859833?%5Fencoding=UTF8
Though I don't think he advocates any particular tax system, but it's predicated on getting rid of all goverment transfer payments, which would probably make for a less intrusive tax regime.
...and lobbyists.
1 1000
2 1000
3 1000
When I run for president in 2008, the Fair Tax will be part of my platform.
We agree on the Fair Tax idea. Perhaps this will bring peace to the reunion....
I get up at around 7am local time, no matter where I am. If we were to eliminate time zones, my wake-up time would be dependent on where I was, not what time zone I was in: in London I'd get up at 7am, but in anywhere that's currently considered eastern time, I'd get up at around noon. This is because noon GMT is the same as 7am eastern time.
While the idea of eliminating DST is a wonderful one, the idea of getting rid of time zones is just silly.
Having explained myself a little more, I will admit that this is probably the most minor plank in my platform. However, it is far from "just silly."
That's the thing where I think you're missing the boat -- "morning" doesn't mean "0700" -- it means "in the few hours after the sun rises". It's the "0700" that is a made-up label. I'd rather have the made-up labels be globally coordinated than be highly location specific.
*sigh*