And much of the money earned sent outside the United States.
For wiring money, Western Union no longer considers Mexico a foreign country.
This is just starting. There will be ‘Barter Co-ops’ springing up everywhere, accelerating with ‘Cap ‘n Trade’ and the expiration of the “Bush Tax Cuts”.
I like avoiding the taxes....a place where hard working wage earners will probably have to go to preserve any of thier income..
What about the CA marijuana crop? How much of the production and distribution income is taxed?
This is one reason they’re coming up with the great idea for the VAT tax all of a sudden. Fewer “honest” jobs means less income tax feeding the beast via the normal channels.
Lets tax the people some more so this doesn’t get any worse! ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Edgar Feige, a University of Wisconsin economist and authority on the topic...
One of my Profs in undergrad and grad school - truly an expert. Great simply to see his quote.
The example of sign holding was looking promising if this article had the thesis - “doing the jobs americans won’t do”. But then again, I guess this feller is not an illegal alien. Quite a spectrum in Silicon valley - Steve Jobs on one end, sign holders (or is there something less?) on the other.
A necessary reaction to high taxes ... money moves underground to mattresses. It’s what happened during the depression... where banks were deemed unsafe.
well great, they can just raise taxes to make up for the lost revenue. That ought solve the problem. < / sarcasm>
The underground economy is obvious to anyone of average IQ.
Oh, forgot.
Duh.....Progressives.
When Reagan cut taxes and simplified the tax code, not only did tax revenues go up, but the black market economy shrank. The Cato Institute commented that the risk--reward tradeoff for getting caught was now too high.
So then, If we dump the IRS (save billions) and put in the FAIR TAX - WAshington will have just as much if not more money to do it's business with - but would have to do it's business with it's Gestapo arm, aka IRS.<
Everyone would be paying taxes - not just that WORK - because the FAIR TAX is a consumer tax...like the state sales tax.
You decide how much you pay in taxes by how much you spend. the REALLY Fair part of FAIR tax is that you get compensated for the tax on up to @ the first $20,000 a year for basic living costs. After that, you start paying the tax - but if you buy, say, a second hand car - NO tax. No tax on anything second hand. (furniture, cars, houses, etc.) There are no loopholes for the super wealthy to crawl through - they'll pay their FAIR tax.
The SWEET part is that the illegals and the drug czars will pay from dollar one, because the won't get the tax compensation for basic living expenses.
No more IRS, no more filing tax returns, no more reporting how much you make or where you work, etc. FREEDOM.
And the Socialist/Marxists would be done for.
OH - and every single cent you make will be in your pay check. Not one dime taken out, How FAIR is that?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119863013677849835.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
bookmark and read - FAIR TAX = FREEDOM
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When taxes become crippling to workers, workers find ways around taxes.
Seems to follow that, if you want to stimulate the economy, maybe you should lower taxes.
That’s how “private” healthcare willl be funded once long waiting lines happen
Few people recognize the obvious parallel between the underground economy and the Laffer curve.
When income and capital gains taxes are raised beyond a certain point on those with employment and investment income, they will as a matter of course, shift their investments and income away into lower tax brackets. This shift is so great that higher taxes can actually result in lower revenues.
But conversely, when the power of government shifts against the less wealthy, making it harder for them to work legally, requiring identity checks and lots of paperwork, and demanding too much out of their small pay, the less wealthy will just do a variation of what the rich do: shield their income.
If this means working in the “underground” economy, and to heck with government, so be it, as far as they are concerned. But until they can convince those with some money to be their underground benefactors, times will be somewhat harder.
The trick here is for small businesses to pay their underground employees “off site”, to keep the transaction as invisible as possible.
Of course, the more onerous and intrusive the government becomes, the easier it is to write them out of the equation entirely.
For example, ignoring illegal aliens for a moment, there are plenty of Mexican-American citizens, who often travel to Mexico to visit relatives. While there, they can do a brisk distribution business, bringing back all kinds of products that are hard to get in the US.
Such as high capacity toilets, and soon, 100W incandescent light bulbs (as of Jan 1, 2012), name brand pharmaceuticals at much lower cost, Cuban cigars, etc., etc.
This is because people will pay the extra dollars both to get the products they want, not just what the government wants them to have, and to anonymously tell the government to go get knotted.
Sure, it’s part of the underground economy, but in this case, it is a good thing.
$10/hour with no taxes, subsidized rent, food stamps and free medical care from CA, and one can live a fairly good life if your standards aren’t to high. A couple of single people share a place to live with both doing the same, and you’re loking at a fair good level of disposable income.