A National Sales Tax Is a Terrible Idea | Hacker News Reader

A National Sales Tax Is a Terrible Idea

theatlantic.com

2 pointsfortran7710 comments

Economists generally agree that a consumption tax is much better for society than income tax, when they can separate their decision from politics. It's simpler and fairer, while also reducing the lobbing and corporate donations that plague our government

This is a good discussion on the complexities IRL and in transition https://www.brookings.edu/on-the-record/the-pros-and-cons-of...

Consumption taxes penalize the poor, who spend most of their money on goods, and benefit the wealthy, who spend most of their money on investment.

> Flat consumption taxes are regressive (shift the tax burden to the less well-off). The ratio of tax obligation to income tends to shrink as income increases because high-earners tend to consume proportionally less of their income. An individual unable to save will pay taxes on all his income, but an individual who saves or invests a portion of his income is taxed only on the remaining income.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumption_tax

First off, wikipedia has biased opinions posing as facts

Second, read the link I posted. Under a simple consumption tax, those at the lower end would pay more as a percentage of income. However, a system can be designed to alleviate this, much like earned income tax credits.

Think beyond the shallow talking points. Not even mentioned is the impact on the accounting industry, which currently has a labor shortage. Our current tax system is overly complicated and has perverse incentives. We should be considering many alternatives instead of writing them off based on shallow thinking

"wikipedia has biased opinions posing as facts"

but yet to bolster your position, you link the brookings institute. lol

The particular link does not have significant bias and is a good conversation despite where it is published. Wikipedia is plagued by manipulation

Perhaps try reading it, make meaningful statements or comparisons to further the debate, and not end your rebuttals with a childish "lol"

You're still engaging in shallow thinking otherwise

Well it’s regressive as hell unless there’s some relief for low income folks or it doesn’t apply to things like food. But it’s like lotteries and how they tax those least able to pay.

https://archive.is/1v25e

> The bill proposes to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and eliminate the federal income tax. So far, so good.

I can only hope this can be laughed out of the Overton Window.

It would be immediately replaced by a new federal agency, the Tariff Acquisition eXtractors.

Depending on how the exceptions are written, a big vat like tax will make things like house and car purchases way more expensive. Mucking about on the money markets will be hit as well. Unless it’s really aimed at taxing the lower and middle classes primarily.

Unfortunately for them, the rich people have pretty much all of the money and those carrier battle groups cost big bucks.

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