Posted on 10/27/2010 9:05:22 AM PDT by CHISEL32
I have heard that most of you do not like Mike Huckabee. Some of the reasons I have never heard of and i will research them. Regardless of how you feel about Mike Huckabee what do you think of the fair tax? go to FairTax.org if you've never heard of it, but given the group of people on this website I'm sure nearly all have.
No actually the cost of new items goes up about one percent after you pay the tax. The cost of items before the tax goes down because you take out all of the imbeded taxes and tax costs out of the item.
All items have built in tax cost now due to the repeated taxation at every step in the production train.
Go to the Fair Tax website and learn how it works.
Actually, passage of the Fair Tax would be a big boost to the economy... for a short period.
In the days between passage and when the tax takes effect, everybody would be buying as much as what they could afford, and then some. People would go as deep into debt as they could, limited only by their ability to find somebody willing to lend them money. Anybody thinking of buying a new car would buy it before the price jumps by 23%. Even people that hadn't thought of buying a new car would buy one before the tax increase. It wouldn't just be cars though. Demand would spike on everything. The economy would take off like it had a rocket under it's tail.
Of course, once the Fair Tax goes into effect, the economy would crash into a depression such as has never been seen in the history of the world. Demand would drop by huge amounts, and without demand, production would necessarily drop too. Unemployment would skyrocket.
The only way to avoid that outcome would be to gradually ramp down income and other taxes while gradually ramping up a consumption tax. The Fair Tax proponents won't accept that though.
Yeah right. More likely the profit the company makes goes up considerably with the end to their taxes.
Go to the Fair Tax website and learn how it works.
I've seen it. And like a lot of organizations they make wildly optimistic assumptions and ignore the hard questions.
I see you have already made up your mind so I will not bother you with any further responses
I understand what you are saying. Honestly I’m not sure. Sorry I could not tell you more. After the initial start up of it down the road about a year it would definitely benefit everyone.
I whole heartily agree with you on the spending. The thing is that the Fair Tax by taxing consumption instead of production it would improve the economy and create jobs. So I do not necessarily thing we must fix the spending first, I think we do need to do both and quickly.
I disagree. All of the analysis that i have seen is that all taxpayers will see a relief and people who do not pay taxes it will be an increase (eg. prostitutes, illegals, and other black market people)
Making an instantaneous switch from an income-based tax system to a consumption-based tax would do the most harm to people that saved their money through the years and built up a nest egg to live on. It would be most advantageous to those who not only spent everything they made, but went into debt on top of it.
Punishing people who saved their money, and rewarding people who spent beyond their means doesn't seem like a "Fair" plan to me.
Well I’ll respond to this point:
Second, if such could work they would have done it a long time ago!
Special interest groups who have the politicians wrapped around their finger. We need a new strong freshman class in 2010 in the House and it looks like we may get (possibly over 50)
“More likely the profit the company makes goes up considerably with the end to their taxes”
So are you trying to make the point that under a free enterprise system with several different companies manufacturing the same product at lower cost because of lower taxes, they will not be competing to offer the product at the lowest competitive price to public so they can garner market share?
Sounds to me like you are on the wrong site.Have you tried some of the Democrat sites. I think they also subscribe to your theory that higher corporate taxes are good for all.
Again it is hard for me to come up with a good answer for that, I’ll be honest. But if we have a transition period to a consumption tax then it defeats the purpose. It will allow for a European style system with both an NST and a Income-tax thus putting us on a slippery slope to socialism. To have a transition period like this we would have to assume all politicians will be honest. And everyone on the forum will agree with this: Politicians are not honest.
If we don't have a transition period the economy would go into an unprecedented depression. When people lose hope of things getting better, they usually turn to some totalitarian that claims to have the answers to all the problems. I don't see how that would be an improvement.
I really do not think that it would do that. But now that I am hearing about people being taxed on already saved money it does make me at least think how we could solve it.
One Idea (probably will not happen):
Everyone gets a check for 23% of their savings to untax savings.
But seriously I understand where you are coming from and I will definitely have to think on it. This is part of the reason I posted this thread, to see arguments both for and against from a conservative prospective. If I do come up with something to address the issue I will let you know.
By the way, why would you assume that the politicians wouldn't ramp up the consumption tax rate in future years if they're so dishonest that they'd try to go back on a law passed which codifies the income tax rates gradually going down each year as the consumption tax gradually goes up each year?
Did you read my post #42?
One Idea (probably will not happen): Everyone gets a check for 23% of their savings to untax savings.
I'm kinda doubting there would be much public support for the government writing checks to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for 23% of their net worth.
By the way, why would you assume that the politicians wouldn’t ramp up the consumption tax rate in future years if they’re so dishonest that they’d try to go back on a law passed which codifies the income tax rates gradually going down each year as the consumption tax gradually goes up each year?
Another Good point. Also this embarrassing but how do you put the previous persons comments in italics?
Yes, that 23% of savings was actually a joke, That would increase the deficit astronomically. I read post #42 just now and once again, good point. Although, with the monthly prebate checks people will at a minimum be spending those keeping the economy afloat until people get used to the new system.
The Fair Tax would also supplant income tax on passive income such as interest earned and dividends so that going forward income already taxed under the income tax would no longer have interest earned or dividends earned on these savings taxed thus offsetting possibly all of the “double taxation” issue over time. I agree that it has to be an immediate transition from income to consumption tax as politicians cannot be trusted to let the income tax expire .
<> Put an I between the brackets.
Overall, I think a consumption tax would have benefits for the economy, but the ONLY way I see that implementation doesn't kill the economy and unfairly punish people that played by the rules that have been in place for decades is if we transition from one system to another gradually over ten to fifteen years.
There are some Fair Tax people around on FreeRepublic, but most seem to have a tendency to ignore reasonable arguments pointing out it's flaws and/or to call those people that don't like the idea of being double taxed (once when earned and then again when spent) greedy.
Good question, The beauty of a consumption tax is it is immediate and it affects all, middle class and wealthy. When politicians try to raise the tax, the middle class immediately sees the impact of voting for more entitlements.There is a direct link to their pocket books. Right now, the Dems can hide behind class warfare and borrowings and deficits to hide their spending treachery. If a Fair Tax is enacted particularly simultaneously with an ironclad Paygo requirement that requires all new spending be offset by spending cuts in other areas or by raising the Fair Tax, they are checkmated.That is why Dems hate the idea of a Fair Tax.
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