One of the funniest (?) things concerning taxation was President Johnson's "War on Poverty" - at the head of which was the army of the OEO, the Office of Economic Opportunity. TIME reported that the amount of income tax collected from those below the poverty line was greater than the entire budget for the OEO.
The poor fought the war on poverty!
And that's the way it always is. We should realize that.
Thirty years after Johnson, the poor are still with us. Nothing much has changed.
We really have to get out of the idea of looking for areas to tax. There are two kinds of taxes. One is taxing according to the ability to pay. The other is taxing according to benefits received.
I'll forget "benefits received", for the question to be asked is if we want those benefits, wouldn't we pay for them anyway?
Most taxation is "ability to pay". If someone has it we can tax it. However, as you say "wealth flees taxation". People flee it too - which is why so many people of many nations come to America.
My nephew in Virginia - an anesthesiologist - said in the British common room, the doctors talk soccer and cricket. In Virginia, they talk about stocks, shares, and their portfolios. Get your training in England, then head for Virginia, where you'll be paid for your skills and expertise.
Well, I'm sure we don't care much about that - particularly when we are hurting.
I should point out there is no income tax in the US. There is a payroll tax. Get on a payroll and you are dead meat. Otherwise, find the loopholes, which are large and gaping.
We should avoid trying to look for things to tax. If the government needs revenue to service us, we can surely pay it. The problem is that 79% of Federal expenditure consists of transfer payments. They are taken from one and given to another, which conforms exactly to the concept of privilege.
The funds go to the fat cats who get corporate welfare, and the slightly thinner cats who get the rewards of being poor.
(I'll go into countervailing privilege more fully another time but, essentially, the way to stop you complaining about the privilege of the fat cats is to give you a countervailing privilege. So, even though you are being screwed, you say nothing. You are so busy hanging on to your own privilege, while trying to get more, you don't bother chasing the big fat cats.)
A final thought about certainty. One of Adam Smith's Canons of Taxation was that a tax be "certain" - that is, the person being taxed should pay it. The modern taxpayer has become an expert in passing taxes on. You tax a corporation, they raise their prices and the consumer pays the corporation tax. As you search for ways to tax - remember you may finish up taxing yourself.
Harry
____________________________________________
Ed Goertzen wrote:
Harry:
You said to Arthur,
"The attention always seems to be directed in the wrong direction. The
60,000 families with more than $30 million net worth are unimportant. What
is important is how they got their $30 million. If they got it serving the
public, they should keep it. It's nobody's business.
If they got it from privileges - they should give it all back. The idea
that you take from the rich and give to the poor is nonsensical. The poor,
along with those who should know better, might think that's a good idea but all it does is obscure their real need - justice.
****I agree with the above sentiments. Pol Sci 101 states that "wealth
flees taxation" We are aware that a lot of income, profit, property and
other forms of wealth are exempt from taxation. A fair taxation in those
areas, removing the "tax expenditures" would allow the reduction of most
of the above areas to less than 5 %.
I remember Stafford Cripps, then Chancellor of the first UK Labor
government after the war, making the point. At the annual conference, the
rank and file were demanding higher taxes on incomes and profits. Cripps
pointed out that if they took every penny of income over 2000 pounds, it
wouldn't run Britain for one day.
****As above, income tax is a tax on the poor. It is in the other areas
above where the wealth lies.
Don't worry about millionaires, and over-paid CEOs. Just work on Henry
George's question: "Why, is spite of the enormous increase in our power to
produce, is it so hard to make a living."
Harry
***How much would a "net wealth tax", with no exemptions for either persons
or corporatuions, net the administration. Since everything is owned by
someone, (corporate wealth is owned by shareholders) all that would be
neccessaery would be for everyone to report their assets and liabilities
and who held their liabilities. There would could be no evading assets
since they would comprise mostly of others liablitities. Any assets owned
ourright and not declared would be forfeit.
I can dream, can't I?
___________________________________________________________
Arthur wrote:
And fat cats there are. Fat cat families too.
-------------------------------------------------------------
There are 60,000 families worldwide with net worths of $30 million or more,
according to a report released in May by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, a
consulting firm. At the time, the number of superrich people was growing
5.8 percent annually, although recent market declines may have slowed or
even reversed that rate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/business/yourmoney/07RICH.html?pagewanted=
-----Original Message-----
From: G. Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 9:57 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fat cat pay hikes
"In response to a series of high-profile rows over apparent boardroom
greed, the Trade and Industry Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, won Cabinet
approval for a shareholder-led crackdown on excessive salary increases paid
to directors. In future, all boardroom remuneration packages, including
bonus schemes, must be made subject to an annual separate vote by ordinary
shareholders rather than by shadowy, unaccountable "remuneration
committees" composed of other directors...."
From the Guardian Weekly October 25-31, under UK News, The Week in Britain,
"Crackdown on fat cat pay hikes."
Gail Stewart
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Harry Pollard
Henry George School of LA
Box 655
Tujunga CA 91042
Tel: (818) 352-4141
Fax: (818) 353-2242
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