No, they wouldn't. They pay about 35% of their income in income tax. There is no way your increased consumer taxes on some goods would more than counterbalance that. You're making stuff up again. Or, if you think it would, provide evidence. Show us the number — Baden
This sycophantic worship of rich elites by the likes of raza I really don't get even though Zizek (seeing as Street brought him up) reckons it's Calvinism's fault. To a European, it's insane. — Baden
More hot air. Show us the numbers. Data. Presumably you've calculated all this and are not just making it up as you go along, right? So, show us your calculations. — Baden
(Saying you have an economic scheme but no numbers to back it up is like saying you have a philosophical scheme but no rational basis to support it.) — Baden
This may be getting a bit off topic but one of the strange things I've noticed about the genuinely wealthy - at least since I've been around "old money" over the past 10 years - is their general avoidance of the sort of status symbols so admired by the poor and middle classes within America. — Erik
People are so fickle and narcissistic that they go for the latest thing just to have the latest thing. — raza
The "poor" require incentive IF they desire new stuff. — raza
I better help you out because it's clear now you don't have any numbers or even a vaguely clear idea of what they are.. Excise and sales taxes currently bring in less than 7% of government tax revenue and individual income tax brings in about 50% of tax revenue in the US*. But you think raising sales taxes can turn that less than 7% of revenue into more than the 50% of tax revenue that you would lose by charging zero income tax. And you think just paying an extra 40% on goods like laptops etc would close that gap. Do you realize how hare-brained that is and that you'd actually have to raise sales tax so much and make everything so expensive to theoretically close that gap that in practice no-one would be able to afford the goods and therefore no-one would buy them and sales tax revenue would actually go down if you attempted that? — Baden
trickle-down/supply-side economics don't work — Michael
the problem with making things more expensive is that less people will buy them — Michael
This notion that the poor are poor because they're not trying hard and have no reason to do better is nonsense. — Michael
US economy is a more than reasonable measure. — raza
The 2.9 percent inflation for the twelve-month period ending in June is a sign of a growing economy, but it’s also a painful development for workers, whose tepid wage gains have failed to keep pace with the rising prices.
The cost of food, shelter and gas have all risen significantly in the past year. Gas skyrocketed more than 24 percent, rent for a primary residence jumped 3.6 percent and meals at restaurants and cafeterias rose 2.8 percent.
Prices have risen roughly at the same rate as wages, erasing any gains workers may have hoped to realize via bigger paychecks.
...
For workers, more pain may be coming, as economists are concerned that prices could rise further due to President Trumps tariffs on many foreign imports. Trump put a 20 tariff on foreign washing machines earlier this year, and the inflation report Thursday showed more than a 13 percent spike in laundry equipment over the same period last year.
“Expect rising transportation costs to start getting passed on to us, along with the tariff induced jump in costs,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of Bleakley Advisory Group.
You will have more income to buy things. — raza
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