Quote:
Originally Posted by Minte
Everyone can't become wealthy. The world needs ditch-diggers too. However, when you travel around the world and see how many/most of the population lives it becomes obvious that US citizens on the bottom of the ladder live significantly better than most everyone on earth. I am sure I will regret typing this, but even western Europe. The majority of people live stacked up in tiny apartments. They drive tiny cars on tiny roads. They eat good. But it takes large amounts of cash there to live in homes the middle class here have.
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Your point seems to be 'the poor live well enough.' Many would argue 'the wealthy live well enough.' I don't think those are very useful statements. My point is that both can live much better if we focus on efficiency and growing the pie - and that there is no difference between many poor people who collect food stamps and many trustfunders who collect interest on their inheritances, except for the dollar amounts involved.
You and I have discussed these topics for close to 5 years now, and I think we are fairly close to seeing eye to eye on the issues involved. If the following proposal was on the table... would you agree to it? I would.
1 - All income tax at a reduced flat rate across the board for all citizens on every dollar earned over $50,000.00
2 - A sales tax of 2-3% on all purchases with a short list of excluded necessities (basic food, heating oil, basic clothing etc)
3 - Every year the government announces what happens with each rate. As both would affect the VAST majority of Americans, everyone would have skin the game... but the burden would be disproportionately paid by people spending more money than by people earning less or saving more.
I'm pretty sure that is the policy that would fix most of the problems we have on the revenue side pretty much immediately.