> Put a negative income tax in place and ensure a minimum level of funds for every citizen and see how quickly Amazon's treatment of its warehouse workers improve. Far more than any union could provide.
We ALREADY have negative income taxes. 20% of the population are given more in refunds than they paid in. 40% pay zero taxes. When you add in government benefits and programs, 60% of households take in more from the government than they pay in.
https://taxfoundation.org/60-percent-households-now-receive-...
The point here being that hourly wages from these companies ALREADY account for theses factors. We could abolish these programs and raise wages, but that would be unpopular among a decent portion of the country.
A more interesting discussion is Consumption taxes -- taxes on spending your money. Consumption taxes account for 17-18% of all taxes. These taxes kinda slide under the radar for most people despite accounting for a huge portion of the taxes they pay. These are also the MOST IMPORTANT taxes because they affect goods and services directly (corporations pay attention even if most individuals do not).
A lot of states still charge sales taxes for things like food, diapers, and personal hygiene products (most at a reduced rate). These taxes definitely disproportionately affect the poor and should be abolished. Likewise, most states exempt prescription drugs, but still tax OTC drugs which also adversely affects the poor who are less likely to visit a doctor and/or have healthcare coverage.
Taxing services to "improve or repair personal property" exists in almost half of states and is also a bad idea. It disincentivizes maintaining things and all the important things like cars, property, buildings, etc are already taxed (and most are subject to tax increases based on improvements). Then they ALSO tax the person doing the improvement service effectively taxing one improvement THREE times. This is especially important when looking at small businesses or contractors who have to pay extra overhead to deal with the additional accounting. The most egregious part is that only two states tax white-collar jobs because the white-collar workers are rich enough to lobby while blue-collar service jobs like janitors or construction workers cannot afford such luxuries.
Finally, I'd love to see vehicles under $10,000 be tax-free (value as assessed by the state). Reducing vehicle costs for the poor would drastically increase their access jobs and offer an easier way to leave impoverished areas. In contrast, the electric vehicle incentives are almost entirely tax breaks for the well-off and disappear before the vehicles are cheap enough for the less well-off (if battery prices ever drop low enough for that to happen).