What If We Did THIS?

[Ragnarök_62]

Anthony Wrote:Call it Andy Stern meets Milton Friedman.

1. Give every U.S. citizen not in jail and over 21 a $12,500 refundable tax credit, indexed annually to the CPI.

1. I agree wrt jailbirds.  However, I'd ditch the burdensome fees,fines,charges for jailbirds. The current financing in Oklahoma at least of the criminal justice system with said fees/fines is stupid. We have a revolving door due to failure  to pays [because folks CAN'T pay]  situation in Oklahoma.

Quote:2. Subject all income to a flat tax, say 25%, with no exemptions or credits whatsoever - no exceptions - besides #1 above.

1. What about FICA and Medicare?
I'd get rid of the Medicare payroll tax, Medicaid, CHIP, and everything else , set the Medicare age to 0, and use a VAT tax to pay for it. The VAT tax paid vs. insurance premiums paid now should wash out. I'd also ensure all medical goods and services are put out to bidding.

Quote:3. Abolish the minimum wage altogether.

I can't go with that. There is a balance of power problem between individuals who market labor and employers.

Quote:One side of our political divide wants to judge the poor for their laziness, while the other side wants to judge the rich for their greed.

But how about an economic policy that judges nobody?

The current system is fucked up. ALL income should be taxed at the same level, regardless of source. This also makes for a spaghetti tax code we have now. I'd just prefer to nuke the whole thing and start over.

1. Yes, for sure trash all deductions/credits, period.
2. A simple x,y tax.  You make x amount, you pay y tax.
3. Medical is single payer, financed by a VAT tax. Collapse all medical programs into Medicare and save on all of those agencies we have now and get rid of health insurance companies. Health insurance companies are economic leeches. They add no value whatsoever in the provision of health care.
4. The EITC, yeah, $12,500 credit for earned income. Work is good for folks.

Quote:The only fair tax system is a progressive tax, not a flat tax. Yours is the Republican proposal; it is maximum neo-liberalism. Steve Forbes, Herman Cain and Ted Cruz proposed it. Flat taxes hit the middle class much harder than the rich, because it takes a larger portion of non-discretionary income. With the cost of living so high, the middle class under this flat tax would pay more and more for the increasing costs of government, unless it is decreed (as Trump wants) that the government quickly go broke and default. Minimum wages need to be increased to $15 an hour; not abolished. Otherwise people get paid a non-living wage. I am not opposed to differences in different places, but $15 is a working minimum proposal. Hillary says $12, I believe; Bernie says $15.

I think it should be based on the cost of living in different areas.  If the minimum wage gets too high lots of folks will get replaced by robots.

Quote:The rich are greedy; that's not a judgement, but a fact. Their economic behavior must be controlled. The neo-liberals call the poor lazy, but the fact is that they have tattered the safety net so much that it doesn't matter; there is no welfare now to speak of for the lazy to live on. A refundable credit would be an expansion of the current earned income credit, which might be a good alternative to welfare.

Well, if the special max on capital gains gets set to what the earned income rate is, that's a start. The income tax should of course be progressive, but folks will argue until the cows come home on what the proposed rates will be.