[Woods] we need a more flexible capitalist system (I've brought up fair tax before).
[Arlo] I've argued in the past to abolish income tax altogether, and go with nothing but a consumption tax, with the following structure. All food, medicines (and Rx services) and clothing are exempt, as are utilities (like electric and water). All retail goods in a given distribution area (have to define) are exempt from taxation if their retail cost places them in the lowest 5-10% of the local range. (For example, if in your local housing market, a house selling for $80k falls in the bottom 5-10% of the market, then it is sold tax free). All taxes would be a single point (no federal, state and local), and distributed to these areas afterwards, maybe something like 50% fed, 30% state, 20% local. Some other points. Following the German model, businesses would have to pay the garbage costs for the packaging included with their products. This would make the true cost of an item transparent, and encourage less waste and recycling. With the wonders of the Internet, I'd make it a manditory disclosure for all business to declare the average hours worked, vacation given, medical given, average wages, etc. of its workers by job, in a clearly presented table. This would be a move towards more informed consumption, allowing consumers to easily find information about a company and whether or not they wish to support that company through purchases. The cost of doing business, then, would be transparency in labor practices (and would also work as a marketing bonus for companies who treat their labor well). I'd mention second languages and studies abroad, peace corps, foreign diplomacy and ambassadorship, but that'd be taking a little tangent.. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
