Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
It's pretty easy to criticize a terrible idea, true.
Your original assertion was that it's not "fair" to tax people based on their earnings, and instead this should be based on their net worth. Did you actually refute any of the points I made? No, you completely missed the sarcasm of "no one has ever thought of this before"; ignored the effect a net worth based tax would have on investment; went off on a completely irrelevant tangent to complain about income redistribution instead of responding to the issue of people with a paper net worth in the negative; and lastly brought up property tax - which has nothing to do with FEDERAL income tax, but is a municipal tax - in reference to nominal wealth in tied up in property.
Even if your idea was tenable, which it's really not, you haven't demonstrated in any way how it's BETTER than the current system. What specific advantage is there in this system? So some mythical ex-student making $200,000 gets a tax break? Is that an actual demographic or more like a ridiculous fantasy? I bet there's a lot more ex-students making $40 to 90K that could use the tax break the current system will soon give them. They probably also won't be crying any tears for the guy who is making more net than they are gross...
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I'm a phone so cutting and pasting a line-by-line rebuttal is difficult, but I did rebut your points.
A net worth tax would have a similar effect on investment as an income tax does on career selection and earnings, except that a net worth tax would actually target the "rich."
A negative net worth would not escape taxation, due to the imposition and leving of a consumption tax.
And you were the one who brought up the real property issue; I merely explained that that matter can easily be dealt with and need not cause a net worth tax plan to be shelved.
Who benefits from a net worth tax system? Those who aren't "rich" but whose income leads others (and the government) to believe that they are. The truly wealthy are those that may benefit the most from living in a civilized and stable nation, and there needs to be a way to determine who those people are (and tax them accordingly).
And my hypo young-$200k-earner-with-lots-of-student-loan-debt isn't a terribly rare situation. I know of several people who fit that demographic.