At 14:00 03/11/01 -0800, you wrote: (HP) <<<< 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. >>>>
It's even more farcical over here. About one-third of the population (17 million people) pay in tax what they receive in benefits. They need the benefits in order to pay their taxes. Netting tax against benefits for these people would be far too simple for our income tax bureaucracy. Besides, it would reduce the number of tax staff from 57,000 to about 30,000. And that would never do, would it! And here's another humorous statistic from the UK. We have 65 million National Insurance numbers in circulation (from which people receive social, unemployment and many other benefits) but only 46 million eligible citizens! Keith ___________________________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org> 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
