Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Originally posted by Sled Puller
Benefits of the Flat Tax
Is the flat tax fair?
Sure it is. The flat tax is true to the uniquely American definition of fairness: it treats everyone the same. Under a flat tax, everyone plays under the same rules. And because of the high family allowance, the flat tax is also progressive. With the first $35,400 in income for a family of four exempt from tax, the poor pay nothing. Because of the exemption, a middle-class family earning $50,000 would pay the 17 percent tax rate on less than half of its income ($14,600) while a wealthy family would pay the 17 percent rate on most of its income.
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Under that plan, I would save $334. Not near enough, 17% is still too much.
Our tax burdens need cut in half for a good start.
Under Powerwagons Plan, I could hide in the woods and pay 0 tax. Although that would be a popular plan, it ain't going to happen.
Lets say I took home $20,000 last year. It is ALL gone, so I have to assume I spent it, because I did not save or lose it.
if I SPENT it, Powerwagon TAXED it! So how much less would I have been able to buy?
Is that proper logic PW?
And on the other hand, you would have earned more... You can play the game of "what if's" a long time... The facts ARE, that a flat tax is just hype. All that would happen is a change of administrations and it's gone. Bye Bye. Hello again to our current mess. Everyone knows that politics cycle in this country... and all it takes is a Democrat congress and president, and we will instantly revert to as bad or even worse tax system than we have now. These people exist to hurt others, and they WILL NOT allow anything good to happen.
I've heard the argument you make before... and someone did answer that. Not that I think it's actually valid, but they did suggest every individual be rebated a specific number of dollars, which amounts to the rebate of sales taxes on the first however many thousand dollars a year you choose to exempt.
Frankly, I don't like the government choosing one particular bunch of people to punitively tax, and then picking another group to hand benefits to. Might as well tax everyone, and if people are so dead concerned over the amount government takes, let's be honest about it and argue it's too much for EVERYONE.
I noticed that there was opposition to the RST, because it is too much like a VAT tax... An income tax IS a VAT tax, but in another form. A VAT tax specifically taxes the increase in value of materials or products as it goes through the chain from raw substance to finished product. An income tax does precisely the same thing. It creates an expense which is entirely passed on to the next step and the next step and the next step, which also add each of thier own increases in price due to income taxes. The only way in which it varies from a VAT, is that it is also levied against the wage earners and wage payers individually, not just the "product", whatever it might be.
I've heard the "can't get congress to pass" the necessary legislation to make the switch. I've also heard the argument that every 15 year old will have sex, smoke pot, and get drunk, so we should legalize it for them. I will NOT back off from promoting the least damaging tax concept simply because it's "hard". The alternative is nothing but hot air, because it is nothing more than a very short term alteration of a bad idea.
No, the only REAL solution really IS to absolish the income tax, the IRS, and constitutionally limit a sales tax to an RST.
I really wanted to take the tractor driving class offered thru the Ag Engineering dept - they got to do cool stuff like build a motocross track on campus
