Maybe because they are all left-leaning socialists?
Why do we in America even consider what other 'developed' countries do?
Hell, would we have ever broke from England if we weren't the leaders on the forefront?
If these status quo defenders (and even those on the Panel talking like this) would bother to check they's soon see that the 133 countries that have the VAT (I believe one of the SQ defenders on the thread claimed), they'd soon see that almost all of them also have income and sales taxes PLUS the VAT.
Even the Nightmare VAT/Flat guy likes to pretend that's not true and wouldn't even check the links I gave to show that to be the case. The links were in #97 on this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1401516/posts?q=1&&page=97
If you'd like to know the typical experience with a VAT, for example, here's an editorial from a Phillipine Star by Federico D. Pascual, Jr.:
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"VAT DIDN'T WORK: Then there is also the VAT, the value added tax. Its aggressive proponents were saying VAT would vastly improve tax collections because of this and that reason.
VAT was all theory gone haywire. It looked good in textbooks and in the lecture notes of some foreign experts, but was never adapted to the Filipino's psychology and his human situation.
Garcia also warned that, as written in the law, VAT would not work as envisioned. Sure enough, it did not work.
The imposition and collection of VAT is now one big racket: Everybody claims dubious tax credits and reduces his tax payments, depriving the government of legitimate revenue.
Nobody keeps track of the cascading tax credits at various levels from the sources of raw materials, to the manufacturers, the merchants and all the way to the consumers.
Stores and business offices, especially the small ones, give the consumer a choice of asking for an official receipt and paying 10-percent VAT or foregoing the receipt and getting a hefty discount (discount meaning “no VAT”).
This is merrily going on in full view of a lazy, corrupt bureaucracy.
Will President Arroyo, who seems to be on her uneasy way to a full six-year term, let this tax drain called the VAT stay as is?"
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Don'cha' just love that "... all theory gone haywire ..."???