What if US taxes were based on wealth, not income?

[Jadow]

the poor buy wal mart brand Ramen, the rich buy the real thing.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
consumptions tax

5-100 years old are always consuming = always paying tax. Consume more expensive things pay more expensive tax.

seems fair to me. Encourages success and wealth and doesn't protect the rich any more than it does the poor.

So the poor pay the exact same tax as the rich. I suspect some low income people would owe more taxes per year than their total income.

How so??? Poor people consume less than rich people so they would be paying signficantly less than the wealthy.

LEts say they earn 25k per year and they spend all of it. They have no savings. Consumption tax is taken at the time of sale. So they could never owe more tax than what they have. Say the flat rate was 20% So that would mean out of the 25k they earned and spent ~4k would be consumption tax.

Now say a wealthy person buys a new benzo every year at 80k. That person is paying 16k in consumption tax each year just off of their yearly car purchase. Once purchase and they are already paying 4x what the poor person paid. Or take a house purchase of 2 million. Consumption tax would be 400k! 100 times what the poor person pays in a year off one purchase.

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
How so??? Poor people consume less than rich people so they would be paying signficantly less than the wealthy.

How do you figure? Poor people don't need to eat? Poor people don't need to pay for gas to drive to work and back?

It seems to me that poor people consume just as much as everyone else.

 

[DougK62]

I haven't read this thread yet, but the proposed idea by the OP is ridiculous for SO many reasons.

 

[IEC]

How about we freaking cut the fat out of the government and cut taxes to boot? While we're at it, let's stop fighting a couple of "wars" which cost us billions of dollars a week.

NOW THAT'S AN IDEA!

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
How so??? Poor people consume less than rich people so they would be paying signficantly less than the wealthy.

How do you figure? Poor people don't need to eat? Poor people don't need to pay for gas to drive to work and back?

It seems to me that poor people consume just as much as everyone else.

again your neive.

sure they consume a lot (not as much. that is debatable). They amount of cost on what hte poor vs rich consume is a lot. wich part of his point.