Posted on 01/07/2004 5:07:13 PM PST by playball0
We will not export more Maytags which are now made in asia, we will not export more Lifesavers, we will not export more Stanley tools, we will not export more Cross pens, etc.etc. etc.
Why would we ever want to, create new products and new factories, which is what we do the best.
You cant export what you dont make.
Make something new. Even them ole buggy shops I remember as a child had to give way to the horseless carriage my friend. The world is hardly at the end of it capacity to want that which is better, more efficient, and useful. Figuring to maintain some fixed status quo and a stagnate set of industies is a certain path to decline and ultimate failure.
Not when you close your factories and move your manufacturing to asia.
But then you might try to make it worthwhile for those factories to stick around, and come back again.
Rep. Bill Archer, Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee:
The following article covers the mechanism on how the current Federal tax system propagates and is embedded into consumption expenditure.
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 price(without taxes) of retail consumption goods and services is 36% for federal taxes alone. Why? Because 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 & enforcement, the percentage that truely represents the burden on the family due to the Federal income payroll tax system increases by nearly 55% of tax free prices.
Where Have All the Dollars Gone?
How the government robs Peter to pay him back.
By 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.
Percent total current federal burden (taxes + compliance costs) of consumption dollars = 36*(1900+1000)/1900 = 54.95% economic burden added on to base retail prices.
Reduce the taxes on business and simplifying them ultimately means a lower price and higher standard of living for the citizen as well as a better economy and foreign trade environment.
Consider the effect of reducing the cost of doing business with respect to exported goods, the cost reductions (approximately 22% at producer level) that go along with just a change in how we tax, provides the ability to sell exports at much stronger competitive position in foreign markets, while imports that are not now tax in any appreciable sense would be taxed at the retail level providing a excellent environment for business to operate in this country as opposed to others.
Go one further step and reduce the regulatory environment imposed (approx 13% of the cost of production) on business and we would indeed be a formidable business friendly envirnment providing exceptional incentives to return manufacturing back to this nation.
Do you think that rationale would convince the lefties?
I doubt it but making sure there is an equivalent to the standard deduction & personal exemptions of income taxes might:
Let all legal residents receive a "Family Consumption Allowence"(FCA) equivalent to the retail sales tax paid on essential goods and services. Pay the FCA in advance, in equal installments each month. Determing the size of the monthly FCA etermined by the Poverty Level for a particular family size, multiplied by the tax rate.
Every year, the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] determines the "poverty level" for each family size based on a minimal basket of goods and services adjust for inflation.
The 2001 "FairTax" Family Consumption Allowance Figures |
|||
Family Size |
HHS Poverty Level |
Annual FCA |
Monthly FCA |
One |
$8,590 |
$1,976 |
$165 |
Two |
$17,180 |
$3,951 |
$329 |
Three |
$20,200 |
$4,646 |
$387 |
Four |
$23,220 |
$5,341 |
$445 |
Five |
$26,240 |
$6,035 |
$503 |
Six |
$29,260 |
$6,730 |
$561 |
Seven |
$32,280 |
$7,424 |
$619 |
Eight |
$35,300 |
$8,119 |
$677 |
1) Federal Register: February 16, 2001, Pages 10695-10697).
[ 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
A family of four, for example, could spend $23,220 per year free of tax because they will have received over the course of the year rebates totaling $5,341. $5,341 is the amount of sales tax paid on $23,220 in expenditures. A family spending double the "poverty level" or $46,440 per year will effectively pay tax on only half of their spending and, therefore, have an effective tax rate of 11 ½ percent or half the FairTax rate.
The beauty of the FairTax is that you can control how much you pay in taxes. If you happen to save, invest or spend a portion on used [previously taxed] items, you can get your effective tax rate below 9%.
[71] To illustrate the plan's progressive nature we can examine the tax burden that a family of four will have at various annual income levels (or in this case, annual spending levels).
Not only does every family receive a FCA based on family size, not income, but they will also receive 100% of their paycheck:
Fedup Smith makes $39K per year...once the FairTax is the law of the land he will receive an instant increase in pay of $200.00 per week. Since he has a family of four, he will receive a FCA of $445 per month, for a total of $1,305.00 additional income per month that he can do with as he sees fit
What a slap in the face to their abstractions (and thus their credibility with their own "citizens") if the US were to completely stand those abstraction on their heads. This is particularly true about the Euro. This was suppose to be a great weapon against us and coupled with their "Sensible and Subtle" policies allow them to level the field. Yet again we slip through their snares and are gone.
There is a more hidden problem. The Euros have over the last 20 year have been trying to build the same sort of Science and Technology "intellectual infrastructure" that we have over here. Part of this program involves counteracting the "brain drain" to the US from the EU of scientists, technologists, professionals and entrepreneurs. They have not really reversed this trend, only slackened it a bit. If our tax structure is substantially lower than theirs this brain drain can only worsen with time.
The Euros are at war with us, or at least their elites are at war with us. While I am sure that there is some personal element to their animus toward Bush, I would suggest that they are really focusing their hatred for the whole broader nation on Bush.
Have you ever help a drunk work through his addiction? In their narcissism they project their self hatred on you. It seems all to familiar too me.
They hate us because they hate themselves. They have destroyed their civilization and are too weak to undertake the hard work of building a new one.
And then they see us landing robots on the moon in the middle of a deadly conflict, while they cannot even cow Poland. Of course they hate us. But then the Democrat Party, who considers themselves to be somehow "European" hates us just as much.
And what they really hate is the notion of the common man working together in liberty and fellowship to accomplish uncommon things. That brings down the house of cards of their internal rationalizations of "superiority" to us and fills them with envy, bitterness and and the blackest hatred.
Let us hope that we are smart enough to ignore the "advice" of the IMF and proceed on our merry and "simplistic" American way.
Let us also keep our powder dry.
Of course we will be hearing from the media for months now about the IMF's "ruling." I wish that the Republican would make a concerted effort to debunk this.
And of course the Republicans never stand up and point this out.
Wait for the WTO circus this spring.
The Dems need to have their treason outed on nation TV. It will never happen.
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