Posted on 05/28/2002 1:58:37 PM PDT by GluteusMax
What country before ever existed a century & a half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.
It's even worse than that...10 BILLION down the rat hole. Mr. Bush seems to tread lightly when it comes to causes dear to the one-world crowd. He makes moves to pacify both sides which ultimately helps the one-worlders more.
EBUCK
How far did that crazy scheme go before it was struck down?
As far as a committee proposal and died there. Unfortunately that is just one of many coming at us (e.g. Bush's commodities tax first mentioned), just waiting in the weeds and a full transaction tax one can be introduced again whenever they figure they have the backing for it.
See:
http://www.smartvoter.org/2000/11/07/ca/state/vote/camahort_j/
Far as I can see, the only protection we can ever have against these kind of hidden taxes, is to work to implement a single national tax that is totally visible to the electorate and outlaw all the rest. The only ones that seem to fit that bill are a pure Retail sales taxes and excises in the nature of fuel taxes.
Everything else gets buried in the price structure of consumer goods and services leaving the electorate unaware of the real burden placed on them.
For example the Individual Income Tax return(1040) that captures everyone's attention each April, is merely a partial VAT accounting sheet the government coerces individuals, held at ransom, into filling out. Its misdirection puts blinders on the eyes of the electorate, and totally distorts their perceptions as to the real impact of taxation in our lives.
Every man woman and child in the nation, pays federal taxes through that VAT.
DO YOU PAY YOUR INCOME TAX
AT THE SUPERMARKET?
by D. Sherman Cox J.D. L.L.M. Taxation
The full impact of the federal tax system(taxes in gross wage/salaries & other compensation + business income/payroll taxes) added onto the base(taxfree) price of retail consumption goods and services is 36% for federal taxes alone.
All wages and the taxes on them are paid for out of sales receipts to business,(i.e. consumption expenditure).
Federal tax revenues collected as % of current family expenditure = fed/(1-state-fed-savings) =
23.5/(1-.235-0.102-0.012) = 36.09%
If we add in the cost of federal tax compliance, planning, litigation & enforcement, the percentage that truely represents the burden on the family due to the Federal income/payroll tax system, product prices are increased by more than 55% over taxfree prices.
Where Have All the Dollars Gone?
How the government robs Peter to pay him back.
By economist James L. Payne, Reason Magazine February '94When the overhead costs are added together, (24 percent compliance costs, 33 percent disincentive costs, and 8 percent other costs), they total 65 percent of tax revenue.
Current total Federal tax revenues are about $1900billion, more than $1,000 billion additional dollars are added on onto consumption prices due to the business costs of complying with the federal income/payroll tax laws.
The percent total current federal burden (taxes + compliance costs) of consumption dollars = 36*(1900+1000)/1900 = 54.95% economic burden added on to base retail(i.e. taxfree) prices.
Too bad that citizens don't get a receipt detailing those "hidden sales taxes" buried in their consumption purchases. If they ever did, some of those 70% of the public clamoring for more from government, thinking someone else foots the bill, might be tempted to change their mind.
EBUCK
The math is just adjusting the "gross" federal tax base, to what a person actually sees and can say they own, their takehome pay, and from which all commerce must derive.
As provable as any number is, it all ultimately derives from government statistics on GDP, the Federal Budget & Treasury/IRS reports of total government revenues.
Something abit easier to understand, placed in terms of gross income (which most people relate to), instead of consumption expenditure & takehome pay:
According to the Tax Foundation, in 2001 the tax burdent on the average American was 23.6% of his or her income in federal taxes, plus 10.2% in state and local taxes = 33.8% total.
Unfortunately that is just the beginning, The burden of government in this nation is much more than the federal revenue collected each year.
Dr. James Payne of the University of California, Reason Magazine '94; found that in addition to direct taxes we also pay huge, hidden taxes including:
- Tax compliance costs: record keeping, reporting, filling out forms, and learning about tax regulations.
- Costs of tax enforcement: resources expended in responding to the tax authority. Each act of tax enforcement--each audit, each notice, each levy--entails a burden for the citizen subject to it.
- Tax disincentive costs: the loss of production because of the discouraging effect of taxes on investment and labor.
"When the overhead costs are added together, (24 percent compliance costs, 33 percent disincentive costs, and 8 percent other costs), they total 65 percent of tax revenue."
And even that figure doesn't include the cost of import duties, license fees and other government regulations. For a typical U.S. family, the real cost of taxes and regulations as a percent of gross income is at least:
Federal taxes 23.6%(taxfoundation)
State & local taxes 10.2%(taxfoundation)
Overhead costs 21.9%(James L. Payne)
Regulatory costs 13.0%(M.W. Hodges)
More than 68% of one's income is now consumed by government through tax collections, tax compliance overhead & regulation.
Everyone should read this!!!
EBUCK
EBUCK
The sooner that people realise that all business can do is pass costs back to the consumer or go bankrupt, the sooner we might understand that the poorest welfare mother on the block pays virtually the same tax as the richest among us.
The whole scam of taxation is nothing more than a shell game to create the impression of a free lunch for selected constituencies that are inclined to support more spending. Unfortunately that scam works all too well, and hits us all with that additional cost of complying with the tax code besides.
What most folks perceive is best explained by
Walter Williams, World Net Daily, 10-25-2000
According to the most recent U.S. Treasury Department figures, in 1997 the top 1 percent of income-earners (those with income of $250,000 and higher) paid 33 percent of all federal income taxes. The top 5 percent of income-earners ($108,000 and over) paid 52 percent, and the top 50 percent ($36,000 and over) paid 96 percent of income taxes. Guess what the bottom 50 percent of income earners paid?
If you're among those who pay little or no federal income taxes, what do you care about tax cuts? Moreover, if you think tax cuts pose a threat to government handout programs, you might be openly hostile and support Al Gore's silly "risky scheme" talk. So many Americans paying little or no federal taxes makes for a natural spending constituency. It's like me in the restaurant: What do I care about extravagance if you're footing the bill?
The reality is that taxation hits everyone at the market through the mechanisms of commerce that pay the wages, salaries, dividend, interest, ... on which we all derive our livelyhood and pay taxes through:
Overhead, at least as I understand it, would be the use of already collected tax dollars to perform gubment functions and not an actual tax.
Overhead is what it costs businesses and individuals to plan for, calculate, & litigate their tax payments. It is a cost of business added onto the price of goods and services above and beyond the payment of the tax to government.
What it costs to preform those government functions comes out of the taxes collected, and is another story altogether.
You know, I really enjoy our conversations until I realize that this aint fiction and it aint some European country we're talking about. Have you seen any predictions related to when the bubble cannot sustain itself any longer?
EBUCK
Have you seen any predictions related to when the bubble cannot sustain itself any longer?
It will keep going as long as people continue to believe in Uncle Toothfairy.
Until a sizable portion of that 70% of the public clamoring for more from government, thinking someone else foots the bill, gets the message. It'll keep going, until the upper 30% paying the freight all end up in Burmuda and reality dawns.
Sounds nice, but--he won't be a Democrat either. And, anyone I can imagine from a minor party won't be electable. Very sad.
Here's what Thomas Jefferson would have said........“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. A wise and frugal government ... shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. ... Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated"..... Thomas Jefferson
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