[kpp_kpp]

fine. for the sake of argument i'll concede. (if it is only on new homes and only on the structure, not the land, then it is much more palatable.)

my issues is with the welfaristic, social-structure influence that the pre-bates give to the government. (a) i don't like the basis of them in the first place, (b) they open the door to manipulation.

the only way i could buy into some type of pre-bate would be if it were along the lines of "per human"/legal-resident. the whole idea of head-of-household, parents, and one dollar amount for adults and another for children, etc., etc. is still providing too much control to the federal government to influence social policy.

either go all one way or all the other. let the government support traditional family structures and the raising of children or let it be completely neutral. i say for taxation purposes let it be completely neutral.

[ancient_geezer]

the only way i could buy into some type of pre-bate would be if it were along the lines of "per human"/legal-resident.

That happens to be the basis on which it is implemented.

All legal residents will receive a monthly demogrant called the Family Consumption Allowence(FCA) equivalent to the FairTax paid on essential goods and services, also known as the poverty level expenditures. The FCA is paid in advance, in equal installments each month. The size of the monthly FCA will be determined by the government's Poverty Level for a particular family size, multiplied by the tax rate, and paid to all households regardless of income or actual expenditure. The HHS poverty llevel is a well-accepted, long-used poverty-level calculation that includes food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, etc. See chart in Figure 1 below.

 

Figure 1: 2004 FCA calculation
Family size	HHS annual poverty level	FairTax annual consumption allowance (single person)	Annual rebate (single person)	Monthly rebate (single person)	FairTax annual consumption allowance (married couple)	Annual rebate (married couple)	Monthly rebate (married couple)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	$9,310 $12,490 $15,670 $18,850 $22,030 $25,210 $28,390 $31,570	$9,310 $12,490 $15,670 $18,850 $22,030 $25,210 $28,390 $31,570	$2,141 $2,873 $3,604 $4,336 $5,067 $5,798 $6,530 $7,261	$178 $239 $300 $361 $422 $483 $544 $605	N/A $18,620 $21,800 $24,980 $28,160 $31,340 $34,520 $37,700	N/A $4,283 $5,014 $5,745 $6,477 $7,208 $7,940 $8,671	N/A $357 $418 $479 $540 $601 $662 $723

[ The monthly FCA for each adult is .23 * (HSS poverty level for a single person)/12 to assure no marriage penalty due to the manner in which the poverty level is dependant on family size. The monthly FCA for each child is .23 * (the incremental increase of HSS poverty level for a family with one child over no child) ] A. Geezer

[ThinkDifferent]

my issues is with the welfaristic, social-structure influence that the pre-bates give to the government. (a) i don't like the basis of them in the first place, (b) they open the door to manipulation.

This is a common objection (from conservatives at least), but I don't get it. There are already tons of transfer payments and middle class entitlements used for social engineering; that door has been open for decades and the horses are long gone. The FairTax reduces the amount of manipulation by replacing many of those programs with a single check.