Set a national sales tax; repeal all other taxes

I considered this a good idea for a while, until I thought about how it may not be progressive enough. Let's examine the topic of groceries. Everyone has to buy food no matter how wealthy they are, and while there exists a range in the prices of different foods, that range is not nearly as large as it is for luxury goods. The obscenely rich, therefore, would pay a much lower percentage of their total wealth towards food, because the tax would be one universal percentage (I'm assuming.) Maybe something more specific, like a VAT that can differentiate between types of goods and who would buy them, would be more appropriate. But it's clear that relying on taxing income is not working very well.

Ron Paul shares this same view! Eric G is right though... There would be a huge gap in terms of what someone "wealthy" spends compared to someone who is trying to make end's meet. Back in the late 80's, the government enacted a Luxury Tax on all goods over $50,000 (and when I say all goods, this mostly reflected on the auto industry).

I agree that the IRS needs to be dissolved though. There are so many loopholes in the tax system that the "wealthy" will still find ways to pay the minimal amount of taxes. But when you think of it, many people try to avoid paying their fair share in taxes anyways. Why deal with this anymore??? A national sales tax is more fair and evens the playing field! It will also collect unattainable taxes from illegal immigrants as well.

The Democratic Tax Plan only penalizes the "rich" for their hard work. That doesn't seem fair. Why do we penalize people for working hard? Sure, we hear about all these big paychecks certain CEO's earn, but they earned it! It's not like they become CEO of a major company because they were entitled to it.

Things need to be kept in perspective! If we penalize the wealthy, they will move their operations overseas, thus taking away more jobs from the US... Never bite the hand that feeds you!

To the two above, who cares if the payouts are not super-super equal? The fact would be that the more stuff you buy, the more tax you pay. There can be no more fair tax.

Uh, this severely punishes those living on savings who have already paid taxes. Barter would certainly rise. Foreign tourism would decline. The rich would buy high value items overseas or in private sales. The poorest, who pay no income tax now, would be hardest hit. I like the anti-consumerism angle, but it would have to be coupled with some form of uniform rebate or economic stimulation payments to each citizen. Just make the income tax flatter with no exemptions, deductions, or credits.

Also, there is an enormous amount of wealth in this country that is inherited or someone just got lucky. They didn't work any harder than the one in the company whose stock didn't soar. Only a very small percentage got rich from hard work and brilliant decisions.

This is a very bad idea. The poor and the middle class do most of the buying. They end up carrying the heaviest burden under a national sales tax, business and industgry and the wealthy end up paying for nothing. A better system would be to have a VAT tax like may European countries to spread a fair tax burden across society. Stop robbing the poor and middle class.

A modest sales tax might be appropriate, but not because it is relatively easy to assess and collect, (except, as noted above, where commerce is driven underground). There is a cost to policing the marketplace. A sales tax can fund this. And, yes, NURTITIOUS food, (not junk food), should be exempt.

If we recognize that all taxes discourage something, we should focus on taxing harmful acts, such as putting pollution or taking natural resources. The proceeds would reflect the value of what we all own in common. We could each receive an equal portion of the money collected, (perhaps with some fraction spent for the public good in a way that we, each of us individually, think is a good way to serve the public good.

If we want to discourage profligate consumption, we can aim for a slightly deflationary monetary policy. People will put off buying that which they don't really need if they expect it to cost less in the future.

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