[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by belsarius

I was thinking this same thing the other day. I am behind minimum wage hikes in theory and how they can help lift some people from poverty but there have been a lot of points which really show that it ends up being a net zero effort. It is starting to feel to me like we are trying to influence 21st century market conditions with a 19th century mechanism.

There would be a lot of work to make this happen, but eliminating admin heavy social programs, eliminating CPP/EI contributions, and increasing tax it could be viable. There is a lot of opposition to guaranteed income but it would probably work very well combined with the elimination of minimum wage laws.

Agree.

Within the confines of how the system currently exists the state needs increased revenue from corporate and personal income taxes, but I think that's generally inefficient and would be better replaced by removing artificial drags on the economy and substituting a conspicuous consumption tax and more tiered income taxes over a certain threshold.

How his proposed “ steeply progressive consumption tax” would work: Taxpayers would report to the IRS how much they made and how much they saved. The difference is their consumption. Frank envisions a “big standard deduction, say $30,000 for a family of four” that would mean “people in the bottom half and slightly above would pay no more tax than they do under the current system.”

“Once your consumption goes beyond a certain point, though,” he said, “the rates begin rising.” How much? “Let me not frighten you,” Frank hesitated, evidently forgetting his context (speaking to a journalist). “But I’ll say, suppose it were 100 percent for people consuming already $5 million a year or more, what would that mean?”

It would mean the $1 million yacht might cost the purchasers $2 million. Or the $10 million New York City penthouse suddenly gets a price tag of $20 million. Frank doesn’t think it will stop luxury spending. But, he predicted, “By making additional purchases for people at the top of the ladder much more expensive, that would steer money out of those purchases and into savings and investment.”

http://billmoyers.com/story/tax-cons...s-consumption/