Posted on 10/02/2019 11:42:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There’s still a few areas, apparently including the temperate parts of Alaska, which have no property taxes. Should UBI or reparations or wealth-tax be enacted, I’ll move there and live a humble (but comfortable) existence on a practically untaxable income level (I have most of what I need, and can turn that into a mostly self-sustaining lifestyle).
That was the reason for Prop 13 in California which capped the annual growth of property tax at 2%, because property taxes were rising so high that people could no longer afford to live in their own homes.
Still, local property taxes are itemized to things like school maintenance, street and lighting repair, drainage, pest control, fire/police, etc., things that go directly to supporting the locality.
A federal wealth tax would go towards what, buying the votes of the poor?
-PJ
This bodes very well for President Trump's re-election.
I'd never have predicted it. After Trump's victory in 2016, I was certain that the Democrats would go middle-of-the-road and choose a respectable candidate to head the ticket in 2020.
But I was wrong. They went even FURTHER to the left.
“Central to Yang’s campaign is the proposal of a monthly $1,000 “Freedom Dividend” to all U.S. citizens over the age of 18 (a form of universal basic income, or UBI)....
“Yang proposes a value-added tax to finance the dividend”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Yang
From the Articles of Confederation:
“Article VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the united States in congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all land within each State, granted or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the united States in congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint.
“The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several States within the time agreed upon by the united States in congress assembled.
https://usconstitution.net/articles.html
This indirect taxation could be reinstated by Congress.
“so basically he wants everyone in the world to emigrate here. 12 grand a year plus welfare and healthcare.”
Actually, unless he has changed his proposal. He wants to abolish other welfare and replace it with the flat $1000 a month cash for everyone. (He probably has modified the idea so I don’t know how valid this is)
The idea is that the various Federal and State bureaucracies that administer the various welfare programs could be abolished entirely and that would pay for the cost of the program.
I could almost go along with that idea. No WIC, food stamps, welfare, unemployment, no Social Security. Instead, have a flat $1000 per month to everyone over the age of 21.
I would put a couple of other restrictions.
1. Must work to receive.
2. Must pick up the check in person
3. The Check must be certified with a fingerprint to prevent fraud
4. Must be a US citizen
5. Abolish personal deduction on income tax but lower the initial rate to a flat 5%. Otherwise, no deductions except charity because you’re already getting $1200 a year back. Everyone, even the poor should pay taxes if they earn something.
I have no idea if such a program would actually work but it is, in some ways, an attractive idea as he initially proposed it.
I'd think that your suggestion would require an amendment, not just a bill.
-PJ
“A federal wealth tax would go towards what, buying the votes of the poor?”
It would go to buying over 50% of the potential voters. The votes of the poor have already been acquired.
Constantine abandoned Rome because it was a human cesspool of blood-thirsty welfare recipients.
RE: It was proposed decades ago by Milton Friedman, and Charles Murray.
I’m sure they have the UBI REPLACE every other government program there is out there — Welfare, Aid for family with Dependent Children, Unemployment, housing assistance, etc.
RE: I have no idea if such a program would actually work but it is, in some ways, an attractive idea as he initially proposed it.
Andrew Yang’s UBI is the 2020 version of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan in 2012. You know how that went.
Let’s see...
250m+ adults x $1000/Mon == $250 BILLION / month
$3 TRILLION / YR
These people can’t even do basic math
“The other article said that taxes on property were direct taxes, but that taxes on transactions (income, sales) were indirect taxes.”
“I’d think that your suggestion would require an amendment, not just a bill.”
Imagine if the Constitution had only been ratified by nine states. The federal government would have lost the ability to collect taxation from the four holdouts if the premise is correct.
Direct means I must pay the federal government myself.
Indirect means I get federally fleeced via a third party, such as a state, merchant or brewer.
The lack of a serious wealth tax proposal is the number one reason elite billionaires like Warren Buffet feel totally comfortable supporting Democrats and “socialism”. They don’t need income to get rich. They are already rich. Income taxes are not taxes on the rich; they are taxes on people trying to get rich.
A wealth tax is actually a tax on the rich and I hope it becomes the most basic plank in the Democrat platform, so all those comfortable virtue-signalling billionaires can rethink their conclusion that socialism only hurts the little guys.
“an attractive idea as he initially proposed it”
People shouldn’t get a $1,000/month because they feel entitled to live in Chicago without working.
The “poor” need to understand that living in major cities isn’t cheap anymore. A Brooklyn brownstone in 1960 could be bought for about $10,000. It might now fetch $5 million.
Factories supplying US consumers need to move to cheap US locales and so do the our “poor”.
There is much more at the link, but I'm still confused by a tax on wealth as real property vs. a tax on wealth as an investment portfolio of stocks and bonds.
When Graetz refers to an “actual tax on wealth,” he means to contrast Warren’s proposal against a tax on income from wealth, which has been clearly constitutional since the enactment over 100 years ago of the 16th Amendment, allowing Congress to “lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states.”That amendment gave Congress more leeway than it had previously under a provision in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, which specifies that “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” That is, if the federal government is going to levy a direct tax, it has to do so in such a way that an equal amount of tax is collected per capita in each state — except the 16th Amendment says Congress doesn’t have to do this if the direct tax is an income tax.
Okay. So. What the hell is a direct tax? That is a good question, and one about which the Supreme Court has not provided a clear and current answer, which is the reason there would be a debate about whether Warren’s plan is constitutional.
The gist of the usual answers is that a direct tax is a tax that applies to a state of being, while an indirect tax applies to an action. Lots of early federal taxes were taxes on transactions — excise taxes, tariffs, and the like. Because these apply to people only when they engage in a specific commercial act, they are indirect taxes. Taxes on wage income are also indirect, as they apply to a transaction of labor for money.
An obvious example of a direct tax is one cited explicitly in the constitution: a capitation, also known as a poll tax, which is charged in a fixed amount on each person. A more difficult question — one on which the courts have periodically changed their minds, and one on which the survival of Warren’s proposed tax would hinge — is whether and which property taxes are direct taxes.
-PJ
“I’m sure they have the UBI REPLACE every other government program there is out there — Welfare, Aid for family with Dependent Children, Unemployment, housing assistance, etc.”
I am aware of that. I do not support it, but Yang is not alone in asking what to do when automation further displaces low skilled workers.
Then again, I wouldn't put it past the courts, when it comes to stealing money from the population and increasing the power of the government.
Mark
What I find interesting is how when you go to any national park, you see signs all over the place warning you not to feed the animals, so they don't become dependent on the tourists and unable to feed themselves.
But they have no problem making citizens dependent on the government, then forcing them to live in violent housing projects or on the streets like we now see in LA and San Fransisco, and see nothing wrong with it.
Funny how the government is more concerned with animal welfare than human beings? Then again, it's pretty obvious that the only use leftists have for human beings is to gain power over and control them.
Mark
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