Quote:
Originally posted by Happy Monkey
Ups: Pretty simple, and potentially anonymous.
Downs: Heavily regressive. Poor people spend almost all of their money, and would therefore be taxed a much higher percentage. Rich people, even most of the conspicuous consumers, spend a comparatively tiny percentage of their money, and would therefore pay a comparatively tiny tax percentage. If the government needed to raise the tax, it would be a catastrophic hit on the poor, and a minor annoyance to the wealthy.
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if the "poor" were not paying tax on food and medical care and there were no income or property tax they would have a much larger % of their money still in their pocket.
the wealthy would pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes, but they would pay incalculably more in real $$$. the wealthy should not be required to pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes - that is the definition of unfair.
i'm not the mathematician but i would bet dollars to donuts that if the current tax system and all of its trappings were scrapped infavor of something like this that the average american would see their financial situation greatly improved.