[Cruising For Freedom]

Especially when one is at the gas pump paying twice the sales tax, and buying food, paying twice the sales tax, and paying for clothes, at twice the taxes, and for school supplies, at twice the sales tax, and you can’t buy “used” food, or “used” fuel, or “used” toothpaste. Maybe you could buy a second hand fridge, stove, or toilet to avoid the extra sales tax, but would anyone want to? And what happens to all of the stores that are trying to sell first hand goods, not used? Would they all go out of business? This is the fly in the ointment of Cain’s plan, and as I don’t worry that it would ever pass, it’s sort of a moot point. But believe me, no one in the lower or middle class would like it if it did ever pass, as only the wealthy would be able to afford new goods, and the rest of us would be consigned to the “used” goods category. No thanks.

With all due respect, those people would be feeling the same sting that the people who are paying far, far in excess of 9% of their paycheck are paying. The deck at the moment is so stacked, that someone who makes minimum wage has the same standard of living as a household making $60,000 in certain all-too-realistic circumstances. My sympathy for people who have truly forgotten the Forgotten Man, and are now only just facing the consequences of excessive spending, is limited.

It is when we come to the proposed measures of relief for the evils which have caught public attention that we reach the real subject which deserves our attention. As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X or, in the better case, what A, B and C shall do for X. As for A and B, who get a law to make themselves do for X what they are willing to do for him, we have nothing to say except that they might better have done it without any law, 'but what I want to do is to look up C. I want to show you what manner of man he is. I call him the Forgotten Man. Perhaps the appellation is not strictly correct. He is the man who never is thought of. He is the victim of the reformer, social speculator and philanthropist, and I hope to show you before I get through that he deserves your notice both for his character and for the many burdens which are laid upon him.

[flaglady47]

Frpm a new FR thread (check it out):

“Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan would raise taxes on 84 percent of U.S. households, according to an independent analysis released Tuesday, contradicting claims by the Republican presidential candidate that most Americans would see a tax cut. The Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank, says low- and middle-income families would be hit hardest, with households making between $10,000 and $20,000 seeing their taxes increase by nearly 950 percent.”