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JORGENSON EXPLODES FAIRTAX MYTH (FR Exclusive)
self | August 25, 2005 | RobFromGa

Posted on 08/24/2005 9:40:44 PM PDT by RobFromGa

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To: yoswif
I believe labor contracts are for gross pay, not after tax income. By what mechanism does the Fair Tax eliminate every labor contract in the country?

but gross pay is not gross outlay to an employer. Anyone who has ever met a payroll knows this. Gross outlay in terms of moneys paid out is at least 5% higher than gross pay.

I don't know what I think about "fair tax," with my exposure limited to one talk by Boortz on the way home from work one night -I have not read the book. However, the cost to employers is HIGHER than the gross pay..., just to get that point straight.

81 posted on 08/25/2005 2:59:34 AM PDT by chronic_loser
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To: RobFromGa
Our first editions might be a collector's item when they make the necessary revisions to the FairTax Book.
If they make the necessary revisions, there won't be a FairTax Book. ;-)

[Most of the benefits discussed in the book are predicated on the erroneous price drop assumption.]
82 posted on 08/25/2005 4:12:33 AM PDT by Your Nightmare
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To: EternalVigilance
It also wouldn't help us be more competitive with foreigners. Ridiculous claim.

Read #19 again, it was a response to someone elses comment that they would be fine with a NRST plan that essentially didn't remove embedded tax costs from domestic businesses. Under that scenario, the relative cost advantage given to domestic goods would no longer exist.

Under the plan the way that Dr. Jorgenson understood it, the domestic business was reducing its costs, and was gaining an advantage over the foreign business.

83 posted on 08/25/2005 4:21:47 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: thefactor

"ok, thanks for stopping by" is offensive?


84 posted on 08/25/2005 4:22:51 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: Judith Anne
I didn't say that I "didn't give a crap what we replace it with"--I said that I'm for total reform and that the NRST represents a breath of fresh air.

Sounds like you are awfully thin-skinned. If you took even half of the name-calling that we get for daring to question whether there might be oh a trillion or a trillion and a half missing from the FairTax plan as described by the FairTax book, we are jumped on.

Your argument does fall into the "Anything but the IRS" way of thinking, and you are for a plan with now-obvious major problems, yet you still say you are for the NRST.

Well, you say you're not here to see this response anyway.

85 posted on 08/25/2005 4:28:48 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: Sprite518; Admin Moderator

How about you ask the moderators to remove your #21 in which you claim I am making all this up with a fake email address now that you have been proven to be incorrect in #25 and #29.


86 posted on 08/25/2005 4:31:23 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: ancient_geezer
I commend your initiative and investigation on this issue. Good work, I have sent your information on to AFFT requesting their response as well. It can only be to the good to correct errors and misinterpretations and get discourse onto a clear basis.

Thank you. I will be interested in their response.

87 posted on 08/25/2005 4:32:15 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: Sprite518
Ok keep living in your fantasy world. While the Fair Tax Book remains number 1 on the Best Sellers. You can smug all you want, and so will I because I know my side is gaining ground. If you are so right, then why don't you call Neal's talk show?
Here's an idea! Boortz can have Jorgenson on his show and read passages from his #1 book and ask Dr. Jorgenson, "Now that it's printed and #1, is that correct?"

We now know the answer would be "No."


HERE IS AN OPEN CALL TO HAVE BOORTZ GET JORGENSON ON HIS SHOW!
88 posted on 08/25/2005 4:32:23 AM PDT by Your Nightmare
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To: ancient_geezer
Maybe somebody will even consider prying loose the resources to produce current and uptodate studies incorporating current tax law and economic conditions as they exist today, instead of having to struggle with ambiguous 5-10yr old studies base on out of date tax laws and rates.

I haven't been mentioning this issue that you now bring up very much, but there has been a lot of change in the past ten plus years both in the tax code and our global trade picture. I agree that the numbers all need to be redone in order to move forward.

89 posted on 08/25/2005 4:34:34 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: thegreatbeast

thanks for the bump


90 posted on 08/25/2005 4:35:12 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: Your Nightmare

you and I know that Jorgenson is not going to appear on Boortz's show because Neal Boortz is not going to go through that embarrassment.


91 posted on 08/25/2005 4:37:16 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: Sprite518; RobFromGa
ELL LOW AND BEHOLD THAT IS NOT EVEN THE DOCTORS E-MAIL ADDRESS. DR. DALE JORGENSON'S E-MAIL ADDRESS IS

Hint: Most professionals I know have several different email addresses, since often every group, department, and affiliation will have their own email address domain, and hand out userids to their various members.

92 posted on 08/25/2005 4:38:19 AM PDT by Ichneumon
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To: KarlInOhio; RobFromGa
This gross vs. net pay "savings" doesn't make sense to me either..
Granted, I'm no mathematician but if what I am reading is an accurate description, I see it like this:
The Employer no longer has to pay matching taxes on withholding etc...
The Empoyee, no longer has taxes withheld, but doesn't recieve them either..
The Employer recieves a "Double Bonus" due to Both Reduced Costs..

The Employee's withheld taxes are not the Employer's, they are the Employee's..
They are merely withheld by the employer as required by Federal / State Laws..
Part of those funds (presently withheld) are "owed" to the government agencies as "taxes"..
If those taxes are no longer extant, then they should go to the Employees, not the Employers..
It was the Employee's money in the first place..

The Employer still benefits from not having to pay matching funds into withholding..
That is all the savings they are due..

I see no rationale for expecting Employees to end up with only the Net pay after taxes, if no taxes are being withheld..
They shoud be recieving their full paycheck, the Gross Pay..

I would agree that "something" is being misrepresented here..
I'm just not sure what..

93 posted on 08/25/2005 4:38:29 AM PDT by Drammach ( I AmThe Sultan of Oom Pa Pa Mow Mow.. Heed My Words..)
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To: Originalist
The fallacy in this argument lies in this statement. Businesses pay an additional tax over and above what you as a worker pay on your money. There is no reason to believe that employers would decrease anyones pay.

I think you misunderstood the context. He was talking about no tax savings from elimination of employee's tax. Since employee tax accounts for over $1.3 Trillion of the $1.9 Trillion of taxes collected, without businesses being able to realize that $1.3 Trillion worth of savings, prices can not come down significantly to cover the new sales tax.

94 posted on 08/25/2005 4:42:10 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: Your Nightmare; ancient_geezer
Look at what I founf buried in Nealz Nuze this morning at boortz.com, Boortz writing:

You know what the FairTax plan is. Let me tell you what it is not. The FairTax is not a "something for nothing" tax scheme. We aren't promising you extra dollars in your pocket or a new car in your driveway. The promise is simple. Your earnings will remain essentially the same, and you will spend essentially the same amount for your consumer goods and services. You won't pay taxes on your investment earnings, nor will you pay taxes when you give money away as a gift. Your heirs won't pay taxes when you go tango uniform and they inherit the wealth you've worked so hard to acquire. You won't fall victim to the Alternative Minimum Tax or an IRS audit. You will be compensated at the beginning of every month for the FairTax you would be expected to pay during that month on the basic necessities of life, as set by the poverty level for your sized household. As they say, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch," and that applies to the FairTax, unless you want to consider treating April 15th as just another Spring day as something you get for free.

Sounds like furious backpedaling to me.--RobFromGa

95 posted on 08/25/2005 4:44:22 AM PDT by RobFromGa (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran-- what are we waiting for?)
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To: chronic_loser
but gross pay is not gross outlay to an employer.

That is not the point. The point is how does the employer realize the $1.3 Trillion worth savings from the taxes the employee now pays. Without the employer seeing those savings, the employer can not significantly reduce his prices.

96 posted on 08/25/2005 4:47:18 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: Scutter

Yes it does add up. You have to remember the stupid people did exactly the same thing years ago with the Social Security tax. The tax withholding was out of hand and visible to the voting public so they "hid" 1/2 of it by reducing the actual witholding from the paycheck and forced the employeer to pay the other half. The stupid "sheeple" had been sedated even though they didn't realize that the money the employer was forced to pay was in fact, money directly out of their pockets.

The only fair tax is a tax on retail sales with no exceptions to the tax. Other than that, it can be manipulated by politicos and will quickly become the exact copy of our IRS fiasco we now have.


97 posted on 08/25/2005 4:49:28 AM PDT by DH
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To: RobFromGa
As I say at the end of the letter, this plan is still worth debating without the windfall pay increase for every wage earner. And there won't be any income or payroll taxes taken out of the new lower salary. And efficiences can cause the amount to rise back up later to everyone's benefit.

I'll be watching this thread closely. Like I said recently, (I think it was to you), the idea that someone comes out ahead after the FairTax is passed isn't really appealing to me. It would be nice, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Transparency in the tax rate, and the perceived pain of the tax burden on each person, is worth more than money. These results will lead to a foundational shift in the minds of the dependency class for the good of America- and it will undo decades of creeping Communist advances.

That's why I favor the FairTax, and I think we agree on this. But yes, it needs to be tested and prodded at every point. No surprises!

98 posted on 08/25/2005 4:51:29 AM PDT by ovrtaxt (Fairtax.org)
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To: ovrtaxt
Transparency in the tax rate, and the perceived pain of the tax burden on each person, is worth more than money. These results will lead to a foundational shift in the minds of the dependency class for the good of America- and it will undo decades of creeping Communist advances.

And that is how the fairtax should be sold, on its merits, not on some fairytale.

99 posted on 08/25/2005 4:53:10 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: DH
Yes it does add up.

I appreciate your support, but it does not add up. Never did.

100 posted on 08/25/2005 4:54:22 AM PDT by Always Right
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