"The present system with all of its flaws is one in which 300 million people are presently engaged in, and it has created the most prosperous and free nation in the history of the Earth."
Our current tax system has created our prosperity? Can you elaborate on that? You are the first person, other than lewislynn that I have ever heard say anything like that.
Most economists consider our tax system to be a major impediment to our prosperity.
Our overall system is what I am referring to, the freedom and the ease of starting and running a business and the skill of our workers and the incentives that are placed on various activities through the tax code have all added together and resulted in where we find ourselves today-- it has all been steered and corrected and elections have been fought and won to make changes for almost 100 years.
Our present tax code and how it influences behavior in so many ways to encourage home ownership, consumption and business formation, and capital investment, and risk-taking is a very complicated jumble. Unravelling it is not necessarily going to create Nirvana, and could have many unintended consequences that might take a generation to stabilize. Or it could be a fantastic transition and the economy booms, I think it is Russian roulette to pull the trigger on this radical of a change.