Factcheck.org has a decent analysis of the fair tax: http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_the_fairtax.html
In terms of specific to environmental impacts, the fair tax is supposed to be revenue neutral compared to our current tax system, so the federal government (in theory) should have no more or less money to work with, so it still comes down to congressional decisions on where to direct federal funds. It could be argued that since consumers SEE a higher amount of taxes on goods (some of which can be considered environmentally unfriendly, e.g. gas), they may be less inclined to buy it. On the other hand, many environmentally friendly items are pricier than their less sustainable counterparts, so this may be counterproductive as well. The more important issue is that the "fair" tax appears to raise taxes on the middle class, and lower the highest and very lowest income brackets. This leads to more economic disparity between haves and have-nots, which has its own social and possible environmental consequences. --j Wes Bickford wrote: > I am hoping to gain some insight into the 'Fair Tax' and it's > potential effects on the environment and environmental legislation. I > have heard the argument that by heavily taxing new products but > imposing no tax on used goods, an incentive is created to reuse and > to buy more durable products. However, I have yet to fully understand > what would be the fate of many environmental laws that rely on tax > breaks and penalties as incentives for compliance. This is the basis > of much of our current environmental legislation and the 'fair tax' > seems to take away this sort of accountability from polluters. > > I have heard this come up in presidential campaigning and it seems to > have the potential to 'sweep voters off their feet' with promises of > no income taxes in the future, but I hope that we would not be > compromising the important functions of income tax in this new tax > structure. Does anyone have significant knowledge about the 'fair > tax' and the environmental pros and cons of adopting it? > > Thanks for your thoughts. > > Wes Bickford > > -- Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD Postdoctoral Scholar Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing (CSTARS) University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue The Barn, Room 250N Davis, CA 95616 Cell: 415-794-5043 AIM: jgrn307, MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Gchat: jgrn307
