>No matter. My own transition past the half-century mark went
>uneventfully, thank heavens.
Happy Birthday!
> I've seen quite a few
>buttons saying "It's the Supreme Court, Stupid."
>
>That issue, alone, should eliminate any thought of voting
>Republican this year.
Sorry, but the Supreme Court is a complete red herring issue. Need I
bring up Sandra Day O'Connor or David Souter? The Court is a crapshoot at
best.
More importantly, the justices are human. The liberals will try to retire
during a liberal administration and the conservatives will try to retire
during a conservative administration. It will be very difficult to tilt
the Court one way or another, just because one has to just try and be lucky
enough to replace your current liberals with justices who are equally
liberal or vice versa.
>Here in the States you see the same movement at work. Lots
>of "Simple Tax Plans" take advantage of citizens'
>(justified!) anger at tax code complexity, pandering to that
>anger by pushing a National Sales Tax, with the chief effect
>of shifting the burden of taxation from the top of the
>diamond to the bottom.
I am not sure at all that this holds.
It is worth noting, after all, that a tax inherently discourages whatever
activity is being taxed by raising its cost. Thus, an income tax
discourages the earning of income and a sales tax discourages consumption.
Consider, if you value your time at $10 an hour, the tax rate is 10%, and
you are offered a job that pays $10 an hour, you will turn down the job,
because your pay is really only $9 an hour, and you would rather keep your
free time, which you value at $10.
Thus, a National Sales Tax could be an effective way of promoting savings
by encouraging the earning of income and discouraging saving.
I am also not sure that it would necessarily benefit the rich. After all,
what good is income if it can't be spent? Thus, eventually that money has
to be used for consumption, at which point it would be taxed.
>*=Now comes along George W. Bush with his grand plan to "cut
>taxes" in a manner that blatantly gives fully half of the
>benefits to the richest 1%. Delaying the payoff of our
>grandchildren's public debt for a decade, he'll use most of
>the budget surplus to achieve such wonders as completely
>repealing the inheritance tax.
Whoa boy! First of all, this is definitely not a scheme to benefit the
rich at the expense of the poor as you would suppose. The poor and
middle class get their taxes cut by third, whearas the rich get their taxes
cut by a much smaller percentage. The end result of such a program,
however, is that following the tax cuts THE RICH END UP PAYING A GREATER
SHARE OF ALL TAXES.
Secondly, if your comparison is Al Gore.... Mr. Gore chooses to devote our
surplus to new government spending; Mr. Bush to tax cuts. Granted, a
candidate offering to pay down the national debt would be ideal, but one of
those isn't on the ballot (unless you are voting Libertarian.)
>Care to guess what'll happen to charitable giving if GWB
>gets his way?
Well, considering that George W. Bush wants to expand the charitable
deduction to all taxpayers, not just those who itemize, I bet that it might
increase.
>No, I am not preaching class warfare...
Really????? You are advocating the wholesale redistribution of wealth
from people that you have arbitrarily defined as having "too much." At
some point, all of that money was earned by these individuals, and you are
staking a claim on it simply because they are dying. What else do you
wish to call the taking of money from people simply because they have
"wealth."
I am sorry, Dr. Brin, but this is the very epitome of class warfare. This
entire essay has been a preached warning about the dangers of us becoming
dominated by a class of rich elites. Now, you actually present some
compelling arguments for your views, but please don't try to hide it for
what it is - class warfare.
>Still, his blatant campaign to give a trillion dollars to
>those who need it least bothers me deeply.
Finally, this another misrepresentation that is typical of class warfare.
Mr. Bush has no intention of *giving* money to anybody. He is simply
going to stop taking money that the government does not need to pay its
bills.
JDG
_______________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Now is not the Time for Third Chances,
It is a Time for New Beginnings."
- George W. Bush 8/3/00
******************VOTE BUSH / CHENEY 2000 *******************
